ARTIST STATEMENT

I began at two, somberly lacing and unlacing an old shoe.  At five I played with sand, not dolls.  At nine I wandered solitary on clay-red trails, scavenging for pebbles, twigs, and other curiosities of nature.   At twelve I waited out the ebb and flow of ocean waves, studying the shifting shapes of sand and stone.  I was interrupted at thirteen, forced by circumstance to “grow up” and “do life” like everybody else.
 At forty-something I came full circle to my old love of things lace-able, shape-able, touchable, buildable, paintable.  After completing the Fine Arts Certificate Program at the U of A Faculty of Extension,  I began my search for a way of bringing together my study of fine art on a two-dimensional surface and my love of three-dimensional, tactile forms.  I started experimenting with plaster, applying layers of an acrylic polymer compound to canvas before carving into the dried plaster with hand tools – dental tools, wood-carving tools, rotary tools.
Working in plaster on canvas has become my primary medium.  I often integrate other natural and synthetic materials such as sand, fibre, paint, glass, beads, and bone.  This can be a time-consuming process. As I work I am continually reminded that the creative process and indeed my entire life-process is a rhythm of building up and breaking down, rising and falling, shifting and reshaping.  My sculptures on canvas are abstract interpretations of these natural processes I encounter in life.



CURRICULUM VITAE

Solo Exhibitions
2018   Rock Water Wind, Extension Gallery, University of Alberta
2005 - 2018   Wolf and Associates, Edmonton, Alberta
2004   Extension Gallery, University of Alberta

Group Exhibitions
2016   Colour the Way, Voices on Canvas, Dow Centennial Ctr., Fort Sask.
2013   Mysteries of the Earth, Voices on Canvas, Muttart Conservatory,        
                        Edmonton, Alberta
2013   Giving with Style, McElheran’s, Voices on Canvas, (Edmonton, AB)
2012   Giving with Style, McElheran’s, Voices on Canvas, (Edmonton, AB)
2011   Glimpses, Voices on Canvas,  Extension Gallery, University of Alta.
2011   Scotia Place, Edmonton, Alberta
2010   Irwin Diner, Edmonton, Alberta
1998-2004   Student Exhibitions, University of Alberta
 
Collections
Private collections in Western Canada, England and the United States
 
Affiliations
Voices on Canvas, Edmonton, Alberta
Visual Arts Alberta Association

Awards
2002   Constance McFarlen Memorial Art Award, University of Alberta

Education
2004   Graduate of the Fine Art Certificate Program, University of Alberta
1982   Bachelor of Education in Secondary Social Studies and English, University of Alberta
 
Professional Experience
1982-1986   Secondary English and Social Studies Teacher

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