Painting, Illustration, Telling Stories

I am an educator and artist working in Olympia, WA. As a teacher- I am haunted by everyday actions that silence youth and dismiss important stories and the languages they  use to share them. As an artist - my own imaginings are mostly swept away in the bottomless input  and demand that streams through my days. The practice of painting and drawing  is an effort to safeguard my visual vocabulary alongside my work with students in the classroom. My work starts from seed images that make an imprint. These seeds come from walks with my daughters, the horrors of daily news, weeding in my garden, pain in my body, and remnant patterns from my family history. When I paint - I let the patterns sift through my hands. I watch them intertwine - layers of paper, water, glue, charcoal, pen and paint.