Art is the primary language in which the pieces of my life fit.
I use paint, metalwork and re-use materials in collage; watchparts, computer parts and industrial objects animate the wild creatures and naturescapes I am drawn to living in the Pacific Northwest. Life aboard a boat for some years taught me how quickly what is dislodged in one setting takes on a whole new context through the hand of Nature. This happens to people as well as any other materials. In 2000, Meniere’s Disease changed everything I knew, burning away all hearing so that I am profoundly Deafened, with permanent dizziness and disequilibrium that disabled me from my full time career as an Art Therapist & artist. I am seasick on land with the intercranial pressue of 40-80 ft underwater depending on barometric pressure outside, swamped with an internal cacophany of noise from tinnitus. I belong to the Kelp Tribe, living underwater in a strange ocean of pressure, pain and noise that never leaves. The great gift of ASL has kept my spirit from giving up. I was fortunate to live near Washington School for the Deaf, and began to learn ASL in 2005. I was raised a Third Culture child with German at home and English and French in school but serious medical struggles from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a genetic collagen abnormality that caused constant injuries and poor wound healing (it is the gene that causes contortionism). Living between the US and Europe, art, music and dance were what brought joy, sustaining me through a childhood of injuries, autoimmune problems and an intergenerational family history of domestic violence and addiction. There are so many ways of being in the world which medical science can name but not control, which create one’s culture of experience. I believe these differences are a blessing, a natural part of a diverse and beautiful world though it is not easy, fair or tame. Being Deafened in 2009 meant getting a final passport into yet another naturescape of life. I say that Meniere’s is my disability and being Deafened now my culture: I’m a dizzy Deafugee. I count on art to awaken courage and creativity, so that people fear less the contours of diversity and change, that nothing has is ultimately mistaken, or wasted, either in a human or an ecological sense.
As a young artist, I went to Austria to study figural art under Joce Ciuha, a Slovenian political artist whose work in eglomise (reverse glass painting) helped shed light on Tito’s regime in the former Yugoslavia and has come to be celebrated in international galleries and museums. Back in the States I learned jewelry & metalsmithing under Max Nixon, a master metalsmith from the American Arts & Crafts Movement. I completed my formal training in visual art through the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture & Allied Arts, earning a Bachelors degree in Fine & Applied Art. After a few years in the commercial jewelry industry, the human suffering in Africa associated with apartheid in the gold and diamond trades was unmasked by Desmond Tutu and others I met from South Africa. I left the industry to obtain a Masters degree at Marylhurst University and became an art therapist. Art Therapy gave me the privilege of sharing the power of art to make story visible, which can change the life of a child, their family, community, and a entire culture. Art is not just a thing, it is a Way.
Education:
1989 Master of Arts in Art Therapy, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon
1985 Bachelor of Arts in Fine & Applied Arts – School of Architecture & Allied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
1973 Sommer Akademie der Bildende Kunst, Salzburg, Austria
Previous Exhibit / Commission Venues:
2010 Tribute Gallery in the Pearl, Portland, Oregon
2009 Art in Windows Group Exhibit TRAG Gallery, Oregon City
2009 Clackamas County Arts Alliance Group Exhibit Art in Public Buildings, Oregon City, OR
2009 “Fast Bird” published in Institute on Disabilities, U of New Hampshire national calendar
2008 Audubon Society Wild Arts Festival Auction, Portland, Oregon
2008 Group Show, Gallery L’Une, Manzanita, Oregon
2008 Juried Exhibition, Pacific NW Art Annual, Adele McMillan Gallery, Eugene, Oregon
2008 Solo Exhibit, BRING Gallery, Eugene, Oregon
2008 Solo Exhibit, Cascadia Homes Gallery, Sellwood, Oregon
2007 Audubon Society Wild Arts Festival Group Show, Portland, Oregon
2007 Starbucks Community Art Exhibit, Milwaukie, Oregon
2007 Starbucks Community Art Exhibit, West Linn, Oregon
1986 Private commission, collection of the Rev. Judy Bartels, Portland, Oregon
1985 Private commission, collection of the Rev. Brian Thom, Portland, Oregon
1983 Private commission, collection of the Rev. Sally Shippen, Grace Church, Astoria, Oregon
1981 Goldworks, Portland, Oregon
1980 Element 79, Portland, Oregon
1979 Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1978 Private commission, collection of the Rev. Elise Donahauer, St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church, Beaverton, Oregon
1977 Private commission, Trinity Episcopal Church, Ashland, Oregon
1974 School of Architecture & Allied Arts, Eugene, Oregon
1969 Union Street Gallery, San Francisco, California
Community Art Projects / Installations:
2000 Installation “StarChild Quilt Project for FAS” Fort Vancouver, Vancouver, Washington
community art therapy & advocacy installation
1998 Legacy Emanuel Hospital, “StarChild Quilt for FAS” workshop & installation
1998 First Nations Conference on Education & FAS, Vancouver, British Columbia
“The StarChild Quilt for FAS”, community art therapy & indigenous rights advocacy workshop & conference installation
1997 University of Wisconsin-Madison, “StarChild Quilt for FAS” conference installation,
community art therapy advocacy workshop, video
1996 Marylhurst University, Portland, Oregon, “The StarChild Quilt for FAS” com. art therapy workshop
1996 Spokane General Hospital, Spokane, Washington “The StarChild Quilt for FAS” community art therapy & advocacy workshop & conference installation
1995 Alaska FAS Family Camp, “StarChild Quilt for FAS” community art therapy
1995 Pathways Conference, Anchorage, Alaska “The StarChild Quilt for FAS” community art therapy advocacy workshop, art therapy video
1994 University of Wisconsin-Madison, “The StarChild Quilt for FAS” community art therapy advocacy workshop & conference installation
Art Facilitation / Teaching Experience:
1997 Portland State Univ., Special Ed. Dept. guest instructor, “Art with Special Populations”, Portland, OR
1995 University of Alaska Fairbanks, Northern Studies guest instructor “Art with Special Populations”, Fairbanks, Alaska
1993-1994 Marylhurst University, Graduate Art Therapy adjunct instructor , Marylhurst, Oregon
1972 Ashland Parks & Recreation Dept., Summer Arts Prog. instructor, Ashland, Oregon
1970 Four Winds/Westward Ho Camp Arts Cottage instructor, Orcas Island, Washington
Professional Affiliations:
1985-2011 American Art Therapy Association, Credentialed Professional
1985-2006 Oregon Art Therapy Association, Credentialed Professional
2007-present Clackamas County Arts Alliance
2008-2009 Three Rivers Art Guild
