Oh, the places I’ve been!
I have traveled full circle creating and teaching art for the past 35 years in the Southwest and New England. I enjoy being part of my local community as well as globally. My roots growing up were in New York City and Cincinnati, Ohio. My parents all emigrated to America from other countries. My mom was from Tel-Aviv, Israel, my Dad from Capetown, South Africa ,and my Step Mom from Innsbruck, Austria. All of these places and cultures helped shape who I am today and how I see the world.
I received my 120 credit studio diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and my K-12 teaching certificate through Tufts University in Medford, Mass. While teaching art in Chinle, AZ, on the Navajo reservation I received my Master in Arts degree from Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado. I then moved to Tucson, Arizona and taught art in Sells, AZ at Baboquivari High School on the Tohono O’odham reservation. After that, I switched gears and taught elementary art in Vail School district at Desert Willow Elementary School. In 2003, it was time to go from the frying pan to the ice box and my family and I moved to mid-coast Maine. I taught art at 4-6 different schools in and around Belfast, Maine followed by the next 13 years at Camden High School. I returned to the Southwest in 2020 in part due to the pandemic to teach at Monument Valley High School in Kayenta,AZ for 2 years.
I now live in Tucson, Arizona and teach part time at Desert Sage High School, the Clay Co-op, and The Drawing Studio. I enjoy exploring the arts in many different media but absolutely love printmaking, drawing with my sharpie, creating soft and oil pastel paintings and working with ceramics, both wheel throwing and hand building. My philosophy of art education is that everybody can express themselves through the arts, no matter what age or background. I enjoy facilitating my students through the processes of the creative arts and help them realize that their voice and risk taking is the most important thing about the arts.
Once you have your original idea, forging ahead with that idea is paramount, especially if you think it might be a mistake, …..Mistakes are awesome, below is what Neil Gaiman says about mistakes…
Artist Statement
My mark making is similar no matter what I touch, whether it is clay, linoleum, pastel or sharpie, I see the world a certain way …below is a quote from Van Gogh on his process and shorthand which resonates with me and how I do my work.
"I can see that the scenery has told me something, has spoken to me, and that I have taken it down in shorthand. My shorthand may contain words that cannot be deciphered, mistakes or gaps, and yet there is something left of what the wood or the beach or the figure has told me, and it isn't in tame or conventional language derived from a studied manner or from some system, but from nature itself."
Education
B.F.A., Art History, The Museum School of Fine Arts
B.S., Art Education, Tufts University
M.A., Drawing and Printmaking, Adams State College
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
