Artist Biography

- February 2, 1973, Born Genoa, Nebraska in a small farming community.

- 1973 to 1991 lived and worked in a farm setting.

- 1991 Went to Creighton University, Omaha Nebraska and focused on art, with mentors Littleton Alston, John Tbien, Jerry Horning, Bob Bosco.

- 1997 Graduated Creighton with emphasis in sculpting.

- 1997-99 Worked at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Omaha, Nebraska where she acquired knowledge for the workings of the professional art world.

- 1999-2000 Went to graduate school at the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore Maryland.

- 2002- Traveled to Europe to research European art.

- 2000- Present Moved back to Omaha Nebraska to rebuild portfolio. Currently living and working in Omaha.

Artist Statement

Graduate school caused a great sense of confusion and frustration for the sculpting process and the art world in general. This generated a need to take time off from the creative process of art making to do reading, self-examination, and just play with material again. Having the opportunity to take this last winter and focus directly on the restructuring of my portfolio, I scraped all but one or two pieces from my graduate experience. The knowledge learned in Maryland and of my self-examination has created a reawakening of the love I have for sculpting.

I have three styles of work in process, drawings, bronze figures, and clay figures. The drawings are a reflection of this need to relax, and find the enjoyment in creating art again; I consider them to be my “stream of consciousness drawings”. The subject, animal skulls are based from my strong connection with nature, life and death. The drawings are organic beings in transition from life to death or vise versa.

The second set of work are my bronze pieces, which I dearly love, the metal is beautiful, strong and forgiving, the subject being cerebral also as they reflect an outer shell, a protective armor or defensive stance combined with surreal, abstract forms. The abstract form represents the handicap or burden the figures must live with; I examine how the human form might respond physically to these abstracts and then create a visual response. I consider all of these bronze pieces to be maquettes, or ideas designed for larger sculptures. As some day I want to see this work, as it should be, ominous and powerful in size and subject, even 15 to 20 foot in height is desirable.

The third, the clay figures, are an experiment with a new material. I have recently moved my studio to a building, which has a clay facility available, and it only makes sense to take advantage of these facilities. The clay work has presented many new challenges, those being, how do I work with such a soft material after working with bronze and how to get the same “edge” or “strength” in the visual image. I have had to basically start over in my creative process and start with an entirely new way of working. Right now the work is all very experimental, but I am enjoying the end results, so far. I have future plans for four, life size, and clay figures, to be completed this summer. 

Two figures will be incorporated into an installation sculpture for a public art festival in Omaha, Nebraska. The other two will be in another installation sculpture to be placed in a wooded area in Bellevue, Nebraska.

I am very happy with my new found focus and passion, and even find any other distraction in my life a frustration, but I have come to realize that I need outside influences so my work will develop and change into the art that I know I am capable of making, but can not see just yet. In response this thought I traveled to Europe last year for two months. This allowed me to see, what I consider, the “roots” of my art. I am still learning from this experience and the work is slowly starting to show the result.