Artist Highlight

"I am an artist. I have always been an artist but have not always been a painter. Born and raised in South Texas I studied to be an artist and art teacher at the University of Texas, but as life does, it took me down new paths and for many years I had a splendid career as an interior designer in Philadelphia and Chicago. While always creative, my own art took a back seat. When I stumbled back into creating art it took form through pastels. The last 15 years have been one of discovery and exploration in a medium new to me.

For me, working in pastel is very tactile; there is no distance between my hands and the pastel as there is with a paint brush and paint. Like working in clay, my hands directly manipulate the medium -- whether using the pastels to draw delicate lines, make a wash, apply thick layers of pastel or even etch into the layers. The medium presents new learning experiences every time as pastels come in varying degrees of softness and hardness; each reacting differently to the various types of papers I use and my expression.

I try to exploit the media with each piece, discovering and stretching what the pastel can do. Sometimes my work is a drawing honoring the sensuality of line that comes in drawing and that seems to be an exploration of positive and negative space. Sometimes it is a painting with the emphasis is color and composition -- whether through translucent washes or through thick layering where pastels can create an exceptional vibrancy. I find that pastels can be very seductive in this way.

Titling a piece is often a challenge for me because I typically don’t begin with a set idea. I let the page speak to me and evolve as I work. My work is intuitive and spontaneous. It is arises out of the pastel’s response to the paper on which I’m working. This response to the paper becomes my inspiration.

Finally: I think one of the hardest things for any artist is knowing when to stop, when a piece is finished; accepting that the most successful pieces can be very simple and elegant, saying enough with very little.

I seek to provide that elegance for my audience.

I studied art at the University of Texas in Austin, Instituto de San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Pan American University, Edinburg, Texas, and Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia.

My interior design education is with Moore College of Art and Drexel University in Philadelphia. I practised interior design for 30 years before returning to my fine arts roots".