I grew up in Colorado on the Western slope, graduated from high school in Delta, Colorado and earned my Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO in 1985, where I studied the visual arts, music and poetry of the 20th century. After graduating from UNC, I moved to St. Paul MN, worked as a production coordinator for a publishing company in Minneapolis, and made art in a studio around the block from First Avenue.

 

I moved to McComb, MS in 1987 and worked as a freelance artist there until 1990, when I moved to Chicago to attend graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I graduated in 1992 with a Master of Fine Arts in Fiber. During the summer of 1993, I attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and gained my footing and confidence as an artist there.

 

In 1994, I moved to Alaska, and began teaching courses in sculpture, humanities and art history at the University of Alaska - Fairbanks. In 2000, I relocated to Anchorage and  resumed teaching university art classes at the University of Alaska’s MatSu campus in 2004. The MatSu campus at that time had the only fully equipped fiber studio in Alaska, and I taught weaving, fiber structures and surface design there. I  In the fall of 2005, I returned to teaching foundation classes as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. In 2008, the Fiber Program was relocated to the Anchorage campus, and I became the coordinator of the Fiber Department at UAA. I taught there through the fall of 2013, and helped build a vibrant young community of fiber artists.

 

Currently, I work at the Alaska State Council on the Arts, coordinating office activities, travel and events. I am also on the board of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art, one of the few spaces in Alaska that exhibits contemporary work.

 

I continue to exhibit my work throughout the state, most recently the solo exhibit ‘Groundwork’ at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, and am regularly included in juried, curated and group exhibits.