“The journey is your goal and your work is your path” Lao-Tzu
I'm a Wisconsin-based artist working with themes of belonging, home ground and ecology.
My path began as a young teen when I saw twisting, dried-out roots of a shrub sticking out of an eroding sand bank on a Wisconsin lakeshore. There was something about the poignant gestures of those roots that fascinated and moved me. My thought at the time was ‘what do I do with all this?’. I discovered it was a question to be lived, not directly answered. Contemplating my connection to the nature around me became the thread that has run through my life.
The thread eventually led to an education in art, which began with darkroom photography, expanded into drawing and painting and years later became an MFA degree in visual art. Photography continued in the form of Polaroid, Holga, and pinhole cameras. (I once won a Holga camera in a national Holga photo contest. That still makes me smile.)
A decade ago a digital photography workshop titled ‘Mindful Monochrome’ enticed me to dive back in and I soon recommitted to photography. It feels natural to be working with my camera, watching the gestures and patterns of nature, immersing myself in its mystique and presence.
My photography has been acquired by the Racine Museum of Art and shown there and at the Praxis Photo Arts Center, PhotoPlace Gallery, Lightbox Photographic Gallery and the Minneapolis Photo Center.
Earlier work in 2-D fine art received a Bush Artist Fellowship (Bush Foundation, St. Paul, MN), and two Wisconsin Arts Board project grants, plus residencies and solo and group exhibitions including Wisconsin Triennials.
Resumé
Selected Exhibitions, Photography
2022
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI. Wisconsin Photography, 2022. Purchase award
Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. Landscapes.
2020
PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT. Trees. Work in both physical and online galleries.
Don’t Take Pictures, Photography Journal. Photo of the Day on-line exhibit (archived).
2019
Artist’s Gallery, Racine, WI. Guest artist. Be/Longing: Among Trees.
2018
Racine Art Museum. Wisconsin Photography, 2018.
Lightbox Photographic Gallery, Astoria, OR. In Gratitude.
PhotoPlace Gallery. Open Call.
2015
Minneapolis Photo Center, Minneapolis, MN. Patterns in Nature.
Washburn Cultural Center, Washburn, WI. The Space Between: Meditations on a Plum Thicket.
Part of a two person exhibit titled ‘Collaborations in Nature’.
Earlier Selected Exhibitions, Painting and Drawing
2003
Gallery 204, Univ. of Wisconsin-Marshfield. Nature as Process: Paintings and Photo-Collages. Solo.
2002
Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI. The Uncanny Vision: Contemporary Romantic Landscapes. Invitational curated by Patricia Briggs.
2004: Traveled to Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND.
2000
Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI. Interiors. 3-person show.
1999, 1993
Madison Art Center, Madison, WI. 1999 Wisconsin Triennial. 1993 Triennial.
1995
Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. River Walks, 1994. A Year of Drawings and Photographs. Solo.
Resort: A North Shore Response. Solo. TRAVELING EXHIBIT
Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN
Talley Gallery, Bemidji State University, Bemidji, MN
Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN
1994
Steensland Museum of Art, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (Originating institution for Resort: A North Shore Response)
1990
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL. Art at the Big 10: Painting and Drawing.
1986, 1985
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. Mid-Four. 1986, 1985.
Awards and Honors
2000, 1999
Fellowship artist residency, Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL.
1992
Bush Artist Fellowship, Bush Foundation, St. Paul, MN.
1989/1990
Individual Project Grant, Wisconsin Arts Board.
1988/1989
Individual Project Grant, Wisconsin Arts Board.
Education
M.F.A. 1987
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Dept. of Art and Art History, (painting).