As far back as I remember, I have loved animals and nature. I am constantly amazed by the diversity of life.  My education and work as an ecologist deepened that love and appreciation. I learned about the amazing diversity contained in a handful of soil and viewing the world through a microscope introduced me to a realm of wild creatures beyond my imagination. The diversity and wildness of the natural world inspires my art as I strive to capture its shapes, colors, patterns, and textures.

Growing up in Dallas, you might think I wasn’t exposed to much nature, but you would be wrong. For much of my childhood my parents lived on a one-acre, wooded lot where it was not uncommon to encounter tarantulas living in the railroad tie retaining wall, lizards basking on the brick walls, and bobcats slinking into the trees. My parents loved to take us camping in the sweltering Texas summers. One of my favorite memories is going to Inks Lake State Park and returning to our campsite one evening to find a group of tiny owls the size of my fist.

Living in different places and traveling has been a major source of inspiration for me. I attended the University of Texas at Austin and spent my weekends camping, kayaking on Ladybird Lake, and watching the bats come out under the Congress Street bridge. After college I moved to Boulder, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah, and finally back to the Austin, Texas area. In between I did lots of travelling, mainly in my converted Sprinter van with my husband and my two dogs. Each of the places I have lived and traveled offer their own unique landscapes, wildlife experiences, and wild beauty.

When I moved to Utah in 2013, I started taking my camera with me on outdoor adventures to capture the wildlife I saw. Utah is a great place to photograph wildlife, and I particularly enjoyed the species that migrate through the wetlands around the Great Salt Lake providing ever-changing photography subjects. Around this time, I also started taking lessons in painting and colored pencil from the wonderful Jan Henderson. I learned to see the shapes and mix colors to create the subjects I wanted to capture. My medium has changed some since then, but my motivations are always to capture and share the magic of the natural world.