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Originally from the rural Pacific Northwest, I spent my youth growing up and working on a small family farm which supported my mother, sister and I. After graduating from high school I moved to San Francisco to pursue my art education at the Academy of art University, where the focus of my studies were figurative and abstract mixed media sculpture with an emphasis in cast and fabricated metal.

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I have had the opportunity to work in many facets of the visual arts industry which has contributed more knowledge and experience to support my art practice. Initially after graduation, I took an apprenticeship position at Wayne Shaffer Studios in Berkeley, California as a monumental sculpture enlarger. After completing my apprenticeship I spent several years at Artworks Bronze Foundry, also in Berkeley, where I was immediately hired on as the foundry’s sculpture enlarging technician before making my way to the production mold department. As a mold-making technician I was responsible for creating high-quality production molds for artists such as E.V. Day, Peter Voulkos, Stephen DeStaebler and Nathan Oliviera. My foundry career ended with a bang (pun intended) and I took a position at the pigment and artist materials store, Sinopia, which at that time was located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district. There I received an education in organic and man-made artist pigments, traditional gilding practices, paint making and other historical artist materials & paint making techniques, and I began to transition from sculptor to mixed media artist.

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Over the course of my career, my work has evolved from undulating, abstract bronze sculptures inspired by the life cycle of plants and animals - inspiration drawn from my childhood on the farm. To textural multi-layered collages, inspired by natural landscapes, plant and animal wildlife and zen-meditation. I have been able to translate many of the materials I use as a sculptor to a two-dimensional format and have found the combination of using traditional and non-traditional materials, such as insect wings, powdered pigments, atomized metals, minerals, metal leaf and glass beads, incredibly inspiring. I find that each of the specific characteristics of the materials I use lend themselves beautifully to the exploration of my concepts.

Nature is my ultimate inspiration; the delicate and precious cycle of life, the undulating natural beauty of animal migrations, ocean waves and rolling hills, and the mystery our universe holds. In my eyes mother nature is the master artist and as I work, I aspire to glean the essence of nature's design and rework it into my own artistic creations. I hope you enjoy it.