Growing up in southern California I was told by my fourth grade teacher that I couldn’t sing. Still I was drawn to major in music in college and ended up spending the first half of the 1990s singing semi-professional opera. My kindergarten teacher gave me an "unsatisfactory" in Cut and Paste and I believed her for 50 years.  Now I am a collage artist and work in a library.  So what better canvas for my art than discarded books?

Following graduation from CSU Los Angeles I taught music for several years in L.A. and then moved to the Central Coast to homestead in Pozo and start a family. After a variety of work experiences running the gamut from door-to-door advertising delivery to sorting guitar strings I ended up in the San Luis Obispo  County Library system where I’ve worked for the last 18 years. For the last 2 years I've been up the coast at the Cambria Branch Library, loving the small town friendliness and plethora of  artists that reside here.

I've always been a journal keeper. I have trunks full of journals dating back more than 30 years. But a whole new world opened up for me in the summer of 2004. I came across "The Decorated Page" by Gwen Diehn at work and was immediately hooked. My journals became places for  art as well as words.  And my travel journals became visual delights stuffed with ephemera and sketches.  I began reading everything I could find on artistic journals and this led to the discovery of altered books.  

My first attempt "Key to the Sea" was completed in February of 2005 followed by "Frida y Mexico", "A Vintage Experiment", "Beach Time", "Caramba-Mexico!", the first two volumes in the Barbara/Blanche Rose chronicles; "Who Knows, Who Can Say?" and "Fighting Angel",  "Petite Voyage", "Young England", "Life's a Circus", and "Definitely Alice".

To learn more about my art adventures, including the teachers I've studied with, click here.

My books  and assemblage art are on permanent display at Casa de las Zapatas Gallery in Morro Bay.

I have two grown daughters and live on the beautiful Central California Coast in Morro Bay with the love of my life, my domestic partner, Margot.

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Inspirations :