I have been interested in art all my life, usually expressing my ideas in two-dimensional media. During my youth, I experimented with water colors and oil painting. Later, when we moved to Roseburg, Oregon I was able to take drawing classes from Robert Bell at Umpqua Community College and began working in charcoal and pen and pencil.

When my children were small, I had a close friend who was a potter and gifted me with many of her works, but the best thing she ever did was to invite Frank Boyden to put on a handbuilding seminar in our small Eastern Oregon community. I was thrilled with the chance to work with clay, but too busy with a family to get involved, promising myself that I would take it up "someday".

It wasn't until we moved to Longview that I had a chance to take classes at LCC from Richard Roth. As I told my husband, "I love everything about ceramics, even the smell of the classroom." That was 9 years ago and I have been involved with pottery ever since. I have a small studio at my home where I produce all my artwork.

I work almost exclusively in cone 6 ceramics, both wheel-thrown and hand-built. I find both forms very satisfying. My handbuilt coil bowls always reflect nature and I do minimal glazing on them, prefering to leave a raw clay look that many people find appealing. My pieces are highly individual, with perhaps a similar glaze technique tying them together. I am working on mixing my own glazes and am narrowing my palette to natural colors with an occasional splash of primary color to pique interest.

Since joining the Broadway Gallery four years ago, I have taken lessons in watercolor painting and now display my paintings as well my pottery at the Gallery. Again, I take my palette from nature and most of my paintings reflect the natural world around me.