ARTIST BIO

A Visual Journey

I am a mother, wife, artist, art educator, entrepreneur, and business owner.  Having taught art education to various ages since 1993, I have experience in a variety of mediums.  The common threads that weave all of my work together are line and color.  I am drawn to the intense, pure colors made popular by the Fauvists of the early 20th century.  Whether working in 3D mediums like clay, jewelry, glass, or mosaic or 2D mediums such as acrylic or watercolor, you will always find my work full of swirling line and symbolic color. 

I have a BS in Art Education from Temple University and an MFA in enameling from Wilson College.  While at Temple, quite by accident, I stumbled upon hot glass and ended up taking a number of glass classes at Tyler School of art.  After receiving my MEd from Shippensburg University I continued to take continuing education classes at University of the Arts, Shippensburg University, Corning Glass, and Kutztown University.  This additional training in Raku, jewelry and metals, enameling, ceramics, painting, sculpture, and glass keeps me continually fresh and the art classes I teach, exciting.    

My goal is to continue creating art for as long as I can and to instill a love and appreciation of art in others. I strive for excellence in all of these areas while dealing with 2 life altering rare neurological conditions.  At age 13, I was diagnosed with Cluster Headache.  It is often considered one of the worst pains known to humanity and dubbed the suicide headache. Additionally, a few years ago I began to have trouble speaking and was diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia.  As a HS art teacher, this was devastating news. As the condition worsened I found my 22 year teaching career in jeopardy. I opted for a risky nerve/vocal cords surgery and in December 2015, flew to UCLA for the operation.  I am currently in the recovery stage and am slowly regaining strength in my voice. Dealing with the pain of Cluster Headaches and overcoming voice loss have put my life in perspective. Other challenges seem small in comparison.  Creating art allows me to communicate without using my vocal cords and is more important to me now than at any time in my life.  My work can be found at the BlackGap Studio in Chambersburg, PA.