I’m ever influenced by an early childhood experience of sitting gathered around a neighbor’s large wooden table overlooking the Connecticut River.  Together we played freely with paper, paste and scissors.    Seems all joyous art ambitions have since sprung from these simple tools of mass play.  Years of schooling took me through premed and studio arts.  Having a passion for dramatic Southwest images I pursued photography workshops with a focus on action often shooting from the saddle.  With images of cattle drives, landscapes and rodeos I interpreted in oils and watercolors into larger scale formats.  

     As circumstances reconfigured, I began collecting found objects and papers for mixed collage projects, all of which led to new fields of play. The inspiration to pursue designing lightweight kinetic earrings and pendants arrived through exploratory play.   In a conscious process using minimal supplies- paper, scissors, watercolor, inks, leafing and glue based mediums, I create wearable art.   Each wearable paper shape is hand cut and glass filed.  Designs are placed on a filament sprocket allowing for motion.  Through movement the kinetic energy displays a hidden understory of words, images and reflective elements.  The final design is treated with a lightweight, safe sealer.  

     My joy is hunting paper graphics and fonts that speak to scale, design and surprise. I teach a stepwise creative challenge workshop titled, Dojo Collage, meaning “ the way”.  Class is designed to invite synchronicity through a series of feisty paper exercises.  Dojo Collage can be viewed as a tuning fork for opening renewed creative paths all carrying transcendent discoveries.  Beginner mind opens all creative doors.  I view collage as an original grouping function that serves in every living system and personal choice.  We dress and eat in a daily collage.  It’s the way it all comes together in a series of choices that makes the magic elixir.