Artist Statement

Color moves me and, at once, arrests me—a sunny lemon on a cool blue tabletop, a punch of pink against a neutral gray vase, a patch of grass jumping from the purple shadows. These things compel me to stop, take notice, and breathe. I paint to recapture these moments.

Humble objects and ordinary scenes from my daily life inspire me to linger. It might be an oddly shaped spaghetti squash, the cyan of a ceramic bowl, or a simple can of tuna on a counter. From these mundane snapshots, I engage the objects, arranging layered relationships between figure and ground, light and shadow, color and value. This is when the fun begins when I get “out of the way of myself” to freely interpret what is before me, and by tilting planes, jacking colors, skewing perspective, add drama to images we see every day.

Ultimately, it is not about mirroring what I see but sharing my pleasure in looking and lingering.

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I live at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Free Union, VA (~15 miles from Charlottesville).

Resumé

2017
I Stand with Her, McGuffey Art Center, Charlottesville, VA, solo show
New Members Show, McGuffey Art Center, Charlottesville,  VA

2016
Jax Juried Show, Jacksonville Center for the Arts, Floyd, VA
Ordinary Things, Solo Show, Atlas Coffee, Charlottesville, VA

2015
CarpeDiem Exhibit, Group Show, Charlottesville, VA
Still being Still, Solo Show, Hotcakes, Charlottesville, VA
Creation & Motivation—A Beverley Street Studio School Faculty & Student Show, Shenandoah Valley Art Center, Waynesboro, VA
Virginia Artists 2015 Juried Show (Juror: Teresa Annas), The Charles H. Taylor Art Center, Hampton, VA
Women For Art, Women’s Initiative Benefit Auction, Charlottesville, VA
Nimrod Hall Painters Group Show, Stewart Gallery, Richmond, VA

2014
Holiday Show, Stewart Gallery, Richmond, VA
Lynchburg 42nd Annual Art Festival, Lynchburg, VA
Tabletops and Trees: A Group of Painters who have Studied with Artist Jessie Coles, Art on the Trax, Crozet, VA

2011
Benefit Art Auction, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

2010
Exquisite Corpse, McGuffey Art Center, Charlottesville, VA
Virginia Artist 2010 Juried Exhibition (Juror: Tatjana Beylotte), The Charles H.
Taylor Art Center, Hampton, VA

2009
Going to Market, Café Cubano, Charlottesville, VA (solo)

2008
How I See It, Café Cubano, Charlottesville, VA (solo)

2006
Group Show for Participants of the Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program,
Rentz Gallery, Richmond, VA

2000
McGuffey Art Center 25th Anniversary, McGuffey Art Center, Charlottesville, VA

1990
Solo Student Show, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA

 

Studies

2017
Rick Weaver, Portrait Painting, Charlottesville, VA

2015
Painting Residency, Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program, Bath County, VA

2014
Jessie Coles, The Secret of Being a Bore
Richard Crozier, Painting Outdoors
Isabelle Abbott, Plein Air Painting
Painting Residency, Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program, Bath County, VA

2013
Liz Geiger, Composition Marathon, Charlottesville, VA

2012
Rick Weaver, Painting the Figure in Landscape, Charlottesville, VA

2010
Laura Loe, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Museum School, Richmond, VA

2009-04
Painting Residency, Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program, Bath County, VA

BS (education), University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, VA (Design Fundamentals, Painting)

Private collections in Colorado, Connecticut, Tennessee, and Virginia