It’s been a long, roundabout journey to becoming the artist I always yearned to be. Like walking a labyrinth, every sidestep and detour ultimately led me inward, toward my center. And, like alchemy, all the parts and pieces of my life eventually came together to form who I am today.

As a child, I loved to color and paint. As a teenager, I fell in love with words and wrote volumes of poetry. As a young woman, I experimented with acrylics and watercolor. In my early twenties, while raising young children at home, I grew restless and longed to go to college to study art and photography. Practical considerations prevailed, and I chose a more reliable path.

That decision led me to a career in computer programming, which I enjoyed and excelled in for more than twenty years. There is a particular kind of creativity in designing systems and solving complex problems, and I genuinely loved the nerdy nuts and bolts of the work. What I didn’t love was the politics of the corporate world. Over time, the imbalance led to burnout and a familiar longing for change.

My return to art began through art-as-therapy, which I discovered quite by accident — or perhaps by providence. I studied for a year with the late art therapist and author Lucia Capacchione, completing in-depth training in her journal-based expressive arts methods. When my eldest son died suddenly at age 26, these practices became essential companions through a period of profound grief.

This work also catalyzed a deeper shift from the left-brained computer geek I had become to the right-brained creative artist that had been waiting quietly for decades to emerge.

While art is inherently therapeutic, my focus gradually shifted from creating for healing to creating for joy. I explored many art mediums along the way, but it wasn’t until I participated in a 3D mosaic workshop with Debra Mager in 2022 that I immediately recognized I had found the medium my creative heart had been seeking.

Just as I once gathered the shattered pieces of my heart and reassembled them into a new expression of self, I now gather discarded materials and piece them together into something new through the alchemy of mosaic work.

Using old jewelry, stones, tile, glass, beads, buttons, and other found objects, I build connections through color, shape, texture, and theme. I delight in creating playful and imaginative animals, birds, insects, and spirit beings. My work is sometimes whimsical, sometimes mystical, and often rooted in nature and the divine feminine.