MY PROCESS:

I create my paintings by combining chaotic gestures with structured lines...A style that also imitates the way I live my life. I work on my paintings a little bit at a time...mostly because I am juggling many tasks that are not art related, but also because it gives me time to let the painting take shape and grow slowly, letting the personality unfold as I watch from afar. I let the painting make decisions for itself, and correct the ones that don't work. After a painting is complete, I stand back and reflect on the process of creation, and the steps it took to get things just so. Most of the time I am just flying by the seat of my pants, but when the day is done, all the chaos finds a peaceful resting place, and I am pleased.

MY BACK STORY:

I started painting several years ago. It is very hard to explain how it started..I had not painted before, except for in 8th grade when I painted a crude picture of a rainbow, a tear drop, and some fire. I liked it. It was meaningful to me. My mom saved it.

25 years later, a series of events in my life left me with a profound feeling of isolation. I wanted to escape...but I couldn't...I had 3 small children in diapers at home.

I had a desparate need to exist. I developed an uncontrollable need to create...create something... anything!!!!! And so I picked up a paintbrush and started painting...but it did not look anything like my 8th grade rainbow...It was a figure, and then another, and another, and so on. All of a sudden these faces and figures appeared over and over and over again...until there were hundreds. I started listing them on EBAY, and people started bidding on them, buying them, collecting them...people from all over the world...important people too. I had no formal art training, but people liked what I was doing...VALIDATION!

I was doing all of this without anyone knowing, only my husband and 2 closest friends were aware. I kept it secret because I was not comfortable showing people that knew me. I never knew why I felt this secrecy, until one day when I was interviewed for an article on outsider art. The journalist suggested that my paintings were self-portraits. That freaked me out a bit, because my figures were all so sad looking...I wasn't a sad person. I'm a happy person!

I quit for a year after this.

Even when I tried to paint, I couldn't. During this time I came to the conclusion that perhaps my figures were symbolic of my innerself. The self that hides behind the happy exterior...like my 8th grade painting. I still hold fast to the fact that I am a happy person, but I do believe now, that painting the figures I do, allows for that process of self-realization to actualize without engaging in destructive, addictive, bad or regretful behaviors!

I think my paintings are relatable to others on an emotional level because I AM YOU...our circumstances may be different, but our need to exist is profound.

I AM A HAPPY PERSON...and.. I still don't show my paintings to those who know me.

**Throughout the years, I have explored many other forms of expressive art and created various collections as my muse continues to engage my curiosity in those deep introspections...

COLLECTORS:

In a world of labels, I needed one to explain to the world wide web what kind of art I do. The term 'Outsider Art' , while being used loosly over the years, often now refers to any artist who is untrained or self-taught. It is visual creation at its purest - a spontaneous psychic flow from brain to surface. I claim this. I do not plan any of my paintings, instead, I just start, and see what the outcome has in store. I go in spurts of manic sessions which are interspersed with frequent dry spells. I can never predict when or where or for how long inspiration will strike. I have learned to just go with it...not to force things. One thing is certain though...the figures continue to show themselves...

Paintings collected in France, Spain, Australia, Canada, Belgium, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Israel, The Netherlands and The United Sates.

Owners of my art include: a museum curator, a public library, a chain of restaurants in Texas, several gallery owners, the president of The National Council for Interior Design Qualification, as well as a few other interior designers, the creator of Outsiderart.com, a slew of influential French collectors, and hundreds of other folks that I have never met!