About

There is an intention in my work to create multiple layers of meaning. I want to encourage a certain kind of focused attention so that the imagery becomes felt as much as seen. 

I build the paintings slowly, through a painstaking process that has evolved over time. My deliberately protracted approach requires that I work flat, using oil paint (a process that is inherently slow), and involves a gradual surface development. The physical labor of crafting these pieces is key to what separates my images optically from the vast amount of visual information that constantly surrounds us.

The relevance of this is meant to be a comment on contemporary life, and the times we live in. It is a reaction to a  digital world, and the fast pace of current news cycles. Making my paintings requires a dedication to time spent simply looking. I savor getting lost in my eternalized considerations of color, patterns and surface. The avoidance of a specific narrative, or the use of textural flourishes, denotes my resolve to having the paintings be experienced, as opposed to having them be a quick read. Their slow construction, and the viewer’s gradual apprehension aims to create an unhurried circumstance of awareness.

New in this body of work is a reference to landscape. I think of all my work as coming from nature, but with some of these paintings I am adding what I see as an additional pattern, one that suggests rock formations undoubtedly inspired by time spent in Joshua Tree. In all the paintings I continue to explore the effects of warm and cool colors, with varying degrees of tonalities, but the insinuation of landscape allows me to examine a different type of spatial field and its relationship to scale.

Background
I have thought of myself as an artist since childhood. My education was in art, and my early employment was in art museums, galleries and for prominent artists.

For nearly 40 years I have sustained an active studio practice, and regularly exhibited work. I have completed public art projects in Colorado, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Museums, universities, and corporations throughout the country have my work in their collections.

While working as an artist I have also been operating a collaborative print workshop with my husband, Master Printer, Mark Mahaffey. For nearly 30 years we have worked with over 200 international, national and regional artists making fine art prints.

Currently, we have taken up the snow-bird life, splitting our time between the Sonoran desert, and the North Oregon coast. I feel fortunate to have access to such beautiful, natural diversity, and I am using it to inspire my current creative output.