Bio
Raised in rural western Michigan, I excelled at drawing and painting from an early age. I began working as a graphic designer in 1973 at the age of 16 and went on to have a long career as an award-winning advertising art director. In 2020, I began pursuing painting full-time.
My work is heavily influenced by my time in the advertising industry where I honed my skills as a visual communicator and storyteller. Although I have taken an introductory college painting class, I am otherwise self-taught as an artist.
My paintings have been selected by juries in national and international competitions and exhibitions including the International FiKVA Award for Painters in Belgium, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Nashville, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, and the American Women Artists Association. My work has also been featured in leading art publications such as Artists Magazine, Create!, and Studio Visit Magazine, and is held in several private collections.
I currently live in Nashville, Tennessee.
Artist Statement
My hyper-realistic still life paintings begin with an intuitive process. I gather objects not with a specific narrative in mind, but by responding to symbolism, beliefs, memory, and an undefinable pull—an instinctive sense that certain things belong together. Every composition grows out of a single object that has captured my interest or piqued my curiosity in some way. As I add other objects, connections are revealed, and unexpected stories emerge.
With the objects settled into place, I turn to the discipline of hyperrealism. Through meticulous attention to detail, I aim to transform fleeting impressions into tangible realities. The act of painting becomes a way of committing these imagined stories and ideas to the physical world—through form, color, texture, and space.
For me, still life painting isn't about perfection or permanence, but about presence. My work is a space where intuition and precision meet—where the imagined becomes real, and the invisible is seen.
Exhibitions
2025
FiKVA Award for Painters 2025, Top 50, International Juried Exhibition, FiKVA-foundation (Figuratieve Kunst Vandaag), Antwerp, Belgium
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2024
Allied Artists of America 111th Annual Exhibition, National Invitational Exhibition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
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Hyperrealism, Group Exhibition, Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville, NC
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2023
Annual Online Juried Show, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists
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Up in Arms, Juried Exhibition, The Museum of Contemporary Art Nashville (MOCAN) in partnership with Cë Gallery and Arts4Impact, Nashville, TN
Still, International Juried Exhibition, Awarded Best of Slow, ArtFluent.com
FiKVA Award for Painters 2023, International Juried Exhibition, Top 100, FiKVA-foundation (Figuratieve Kunst Vandaag), Antwerp, Belgium
At Rest: A Still Life Invitational, Group Exhibition, Customs House Art Museum, Clarksville, TN
Pushing Forward Reaching Back, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists, Brookgreen Gardens Museum, Murrells Inlet, SC
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She, International Juried Exhibition, ArtFluent.com
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2022
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FiKVA Award for Painters 2022, Top 35, International Juried Exhibition, FiKVA-foundation (Figuratieve Kunst Vandaag), Antwerp, Belgium
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Mood, International Juried Exhibition, ArtFluent.com
Mimic, International Juried Exhibition, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
Spring Online Exhibition, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists
Feminist Insight: Telling Her Story, National Juried Exhibition, Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Fayetteville, NC
Breaking Through: The Rise of American Women Artists, National Juried Exhibition, American Women Artists, Customs House Art Museum, Clarksville, TN
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2021
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Narrative Still Life, National Juried Exhibition, Catholic Art Institute, Chicago, IL
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ViewPoint 53, Cincinnati Art Club’s National Juried Exhibition, Cincinnati, OH
Publications and online features
2025 / Create! Magazine, Issue 52
2025 / CollexArt.com, Featured Artist
2024 / Art Fluent, Curator's Choice, March Issue
2023 / Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 51
2022 / Create! Magazine, Issue 33
2022 / Artist Magazine, Artists Over 60, March/April Issue
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Memberships
American Women Artists, Associate With Distinction / website
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Newsletter Archive
2025
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April / Pause. Reset. Refresh.
2024
March / A leap of faith.
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2023
June / Slow art.
2022
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December / The art of persistence.
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May / What's this all about?
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February / A work in progress.