Artist Statement

I am a community connector, artist, and practical creative, a Vermonter at heart, 8-year Oakland/Emeryville resident, smitten with California’s diversity, and deeply in love with my family. I am committed to art, community, social justice and learning from difference - from cultural strategy for migrant rights, to artisan business development internationally, food system and energy projects, and youth arts and outdoors-access programs. I have led photography workshops, executed mural projects, worked in wood, and co-created community food events, and am inspired by kids exploring the power of art, movement, and the freedom of nature.

As an artist by hobby, I spent years with drawing and charcoal, which evolved into printmaking during university, then papercut, block printing, and photography. After moving to Oakland in 2015 I rediscovered stencils, this time as it connects to street art and social justice art traditions.

My current artwork draws on site-specific literal and figurative natural-world motifs with living stories to tell. I leverage the power of my printmaking fundamentals in stencil-making, playing to bold shapes and subtle forms that rely on shadow, light, texture and layering. My work consists of freehand rendered images, hand cut stencils, and water-based spray paint at small and large scale. My works have been featured on the walls of a collective children’s space in a historic Barcelona mill building, a two-story fanciful treehouse in Napa, bus shelters for the City of Emeryville (forthcoming), and in interior decor for private homes.

Babosas

This artwork - water-based stencil on bamboo ply - of California’s enigmatic banana slugs was inspired by a camping trip by a riverside in San Mateo Memorial Park. There these gastropods clung tightly to the underskirts of the river’s banks in the heat of the day, except for one brave soul sending itself on a slime rope swing into the river – behavior which sent me investigating with our 4-year-old as to the possible inspirations for such an escapade, and thus, a lot of reference material for art-making.