Artist Statement 2023

The sound and movement of scraping are quite satisfying as I arrange and layer papers to create my collages. I work with transparency — what to reveal and what to conceal; how the added shapes, colors, textures and marks respond to each other and create new shapes; how the diptychs have an active conversation. My work starts with making papers on new and found surfaces through painting, drawing and printmaking — I have a love affair with painting on the New York Times! The work is tactile and expressive, and I find myself focusing on the mood of the day as well as the state of the world. Lately it has been about order vs. disorder; alignment vs. misalignment and when to respect the boundaries and when to break them. Most recently I have been working on a much larger scale with a tilt toward painting and a focus on climate change. That said, there are periods when the goal is simply to delight both the artist and the viewer — to be restorative; to be a balm.

Curriculum Vitae

Growing up a “simple farm girl from Ohio,”  I was trained in design at the University of Cincinnati. The 5-year program began with a Bauhaus foundation year that included color studies, drawing, and painting. I worked for many years in architectural interior design on a wide range of built environments for corporations, colleges, universities and schools  nationally and internationally. While a principal at Sasaki Associates, the collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to teaming with architects, planners, landscape architects, graphic designers and artists  was fundamental to the practice and yielded rich results.

Over the last several years in addition to my work for colleges and non-profits as Harrod Design Research, I focused on environments for children and young adults on the autism spectrum. Design can make a big difference, as the challenges of sensory sensitivities can overwhelm and distract. As we are seeing a huge  upsurge in students with mental health challenges, with physical differences or who are neurodiverse, I have been challenged to look at universal design in new ways and  to think about how we all perceive the world so differently.

Most recently I had also been teaching design at the college level as an adjunct while taking classes and workshops in collage, woodcuts, monoprints and color theory. 

Now my primary focus is making art.