I’m a third-generation Arizonan, born and mostly raised in Phoenix, with a degree in German from C.W. Post College of Long Island University.
Glass has always interested me. I was finally able to devote some time to it in 2002. After trying stained glass and lampworking, I found fusing – and my passion. I began by making jewelry. Since buying a bigger kiln in 2012, I’m making bowls, plates, sculptural pieces, wall hangings and just miscellaneous items.
I love to play with colors and geometric patterns while maintaining simplicity and elegance, and sometimes whimsy. Favorite themes are:
- the Sonoran Desert, with its saguaro cacti and mustangs / spirit horses,
- leaves and leaf skeletons,
- faces (abstract),
- space / dark skies and
- springtime in the East, complete with cherry trees in blossom (mainly because I spend Easters with my daughter and her family in Richmond, Virginia).
Thanks to classes and workshops in Tucson and Phoenix, AZ; San Antonio, TX; Portland, OR; Indio, CA; and Corning, NY, with local and nationally known artists such as Gil Reynolds, Gail Stouffer, Kari Minnick, Roger V. Thomas, Paul Messink, Craig Mitchell Smith, and Denise Stillwaggon Leone, my skills and knowledge are ever improving.
In 2021, after a workshop on the chemistry of glass with Paul Anders-Stout at the Sonoran Glass School in Tucson, I began learning to blow glass. After the semester classes there plus classes and workshops at the Mesa Arts Center, Hot Shop Glass (Racine, Wisconsin), Corning Museum of Glass and Pittsburgh Glass Center, I’m trying to find a way to integrate blowing into fusing, which remains my focus. Check out WHAT’S NEW to see some of these efforts.
After many attempts at making beads, Pat Scott, a friend and wonderful beader (and fuser), is working with me to create beads (not as easy as you may think!). I’ve started to enhance my fused glass pendants and earrings with beads I’ve made at her studio. Check out WHAT’S NEW to see some of these efforts.
