Biography: Ever A Work in Progress

I have always made stuff, and some of it is visual art.

A life-long learner, I am proud of my assortment of degrees and certificates, from Sociology to Personal Finance, but it will always be those in Studio Art and Art History that have fed my soul. I have extended my learning by occasionally teaching Kindergarteners to adults and I have illustrated two children’s books along the way as well.

Over the years I have shown my work in at least twenty galleries and two dozen art festivals.  The art community wherever I have ventured in California is lively and inclusive, especially here in Santa Cruz County, my home studio for the past 30 years.

While I concentrated mainly on ceramics for a few decades, recently I have returned to my drawing, painting, collage and mixed media roots, delighted to find that my touch and perception in those 2D and bas-relief worlds were intensified because of my literal hands-on time in the 3D realms of ceramics.

There is always plenty more to know and to practice. As a student of aesthetics,  art history, the creative process, and of the specialized nerdy technical info in each medium, I can say quite cheerfully that I am, myself, the work in progress.

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Artist Statement: Whaddya Got to Say? (Less subject, more artist, please)

Decades ago, after looking at a motley grouping of my early work, a kindly colleague once observed, “So you can paint, whaddya got to say?” She nailed it.  While noting my skillful application, she pointed out the need for evidence of a stronger personal point of view. I was essentially a talented crowd pleaser. Ouch.

As a hungry learner, I have always wrassled with the double-edged sword of student-ship. It’s a useful practice, until it isn’t. The unspoken goal of seeking blessings/validation from the instructor, the cohort, the jurist, or even the art-loving public ultimately takes one only so far and, my case in point, can seriously warp or even impede finding authentic agency. 

After a lifetime of peeling back the layers of the art-making enigma to find my core self in it,  here’s my Maker’s Manifesto:

Whatever the medium, I wait for a particularly insistent curiosity before starting in. I need to NOT know exactly where I’m going! Ideas abound,  but most of them arrive with their own conclusions and aren’t worth pursuing, to be honest. While I am by nature a goal-oriented doer, it is better for me to slow it all down and to practice a thoughtful intentionality in the making process. To actually pause and listen to a piece in progress, too, so I can see true doneness whenever it arrives, not just because I want it to.

I recognize that doneness if my works feel inevitable to me. They begin to breathe.  If I sense a noticeably effortful quality, I will often take a long break or even begin again. As Brian Eno said, “You cannot control your way out of control.”

So ultimately I’m seeking to set myself up and to explore what happens when… That’s always been true, but now I own that reality and not the other way around.