I am a Vancouver Islander and my environment has always deeply affected my art. When I was a child I used to run down to the beach, gather cedar bark and kelp, tease the materials into long strips and spend happy hours weaving the cords into wall hangings and baskets. Later I'd follow trails through the forest and cut panels of alder bark to make tiny canoes for floating down the creek. My imagination was alive with stories and my first works of craft were props for my play making. My childhood freedom gave me early training for my current work. Storytelling is infused in my pieces as I work to achieve a subtle narrative based either on the character of the figure I am sculpting or a suggestion of past history with surface treatments and the design of my vessels. I was delighted when someone once commented that a piece I had made was Futuristic Primitive  as she couldn't decide if the piece reminded her of an ancient artifact or a prop from a science fiction movie! 

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My Storytelling Muse awakens whenever I walk on the seashore or in a rain forest. The west coast environment envelops me in a creative cloak tinted with muted, misty colours and undulating textures. The sound of the waves and wind in the trees inspire mood and rhythm as I sketch my ideas. I capture colour combinations with my camera and fill my pockets with glorious collections of stones and 

inspirational tangles of organic materials that I use to stamp in the wax or weave into my work. 

 

My primary medium over the past twenty years was polymer clay as it  offered so many possibilities for my organic mixed media approach. The COVID years gave me time to reflect and I decided to experiment with encaustic wax. The transition has been energizing.  Encaustic works beautifully with my fascination with organic inclusions, west coast colours and three dimensional work.
 

Meeting people at shows and exhibitions is always a wonderful experience and I feel enormously encouraged when my work motivates conversation, but nothing is more exciting than hearing people invent stories to complete the connection between the artwork and the viewer. As I see it, my role is to incorporate influences from my landscape to create pieces that inspire the viewer to celebrate their own sense of play and in turn find joy in creating their own stories as they view my work.