biography | statement

I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and have been creating art since my childhood, spent in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. I completed my Master’s degree in Public Administration, emphasizing Nonprofit Management, in 1996. My thesis topic focused on small arts organizations in rural Minnesota and their contribution to the local economy and quality of life. I began my studies in printmaking in 1999 at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). I continue to enroll in the MCAD continuing studies printmaking seminar in order to maintain studio access. I’ve worked with various print media, including linocuts, monotypes, monoprints, copper etching, photocopy transfer, screenprinting, and, most recently, solarplates and Z*Acryl digital etchings. I have a home studio with a small relief letterpress and tabletop etching press.

My work was shown in four group shows in Twin Cities coffee shops in 2003-2004 (Cuppa Java, Café Tempo, A Fine Grind) and I was selected as one of 17 visual artists to participate in the juried 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival Visible Fringe show. I presented 16 prints in the Visible Fringe and received press coverage in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, Skyway News, and the Health Partners weekly electronic newsletter that is circulated to 7,000 Health Partners employees. During the Fringe Festival, I maintained a daily web log on the Fringe web site documenting my experience producing and presenting my first gallery exhibit. I covered the work of the 16 other Visible Fringe artists and two Visible Fringe discussion panels, and participated as a panelist on one of these panels.

I have supplemented my continuing studies printmaking seminars at MCAD with classes in life drawing and photography in order to further develop my skills and eye for composition and line. I have found the continuing studies seminars incredibly useful to my artistic development because they provide the opportunity not only to learn from an experienced print artist, but also to receive critique and structured feedback from the other artists in the studio.

I travel extensively, which gives me the opportunity to examine, study and record the interplay of color, light, texture, depth and shape in the natural and man-made landscape. This study proves useful when producing prints in the studio. My work is often reminiscent of colors and textures found in nature. I do not try to reproduce nature in my work, but rather to apply lessons learned in a fresh way.

I have been employed with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a progressive private nonprofit with a staff of 35, for fifteen years. Since 1997, I have held the position of Development Director, responsible for raising our $3.2 million budget from foundations, individuals and government agencies.

These works are a study in self-portrait – in a bizarre context.

All of the imagery in this collection comes from angiograms and CT scans of my brain.

In May 2002, I experienced a brain aneurysm, and from that I have no residual effect whatsoever, but am left with piles of fascinating images.

My experience through the illness, surgery and recovery was quite fantastic, peaceful and, frankly, often quite funny. My memories do not match those of the people around me who bore the stress of my condition, and this contradiction of perception has forced me to reflect on how I live my life, how I relate to the world and how I think of my art.

To produce these prints, I digitally enhance the texture, scope and contrast of the images from my brain and transfer them onto photosensitive intaglio plates, polyester pronto plates, or copper plates covered with a photosensitive film. After the plates are developed, they’re inked by hand and printed on an etching press. In the print shop, I experiment with color and different printmaking techniques.

The results -- some intentional, others happy coincidence -- may resemble the natural world of landscapes and trees or simply abstract images.