I was born in Southwest Louisiana of Cajun descent and spent most of my formative years on our small farm. My father worked for the Department of Agriculture and our whole family of seven took part in a full farming experience. This environment instilled in me a passionate love of nature. Along side this love grew a calling to be an artist and drawing then became another passion.
I received a BFA from the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, LA and did extended study on a graduate fellowship from the Cardiff College of Art in Cardiff, Wales.
Upon returning to the states, I moved to New Orleans where my priorities changed to raising a young family, teaching and gardening.
Seven years later, a letter from overseas brought with it a wonderful invitation to move to the south of Spain with my husband and three children to manage a kitchen garden on a citrus farm. There I continued this blending of art and gardening with drawings of indigenous plants.
After a year in Spain we returned to the family farm in Opelousas. I started “The Garden Works” and began designing, installing and maintaining functional gardens for restaurants, homes and schools in SW Louisiana and Mississippi with the help of family and friends. My drawing continued in the form of elaborate garden plans. During this time, opportunities opened to exhibit in galleries and I began to concentrate more on making art.
My next move was to Dixon, NM, an artist’s colony near Taos. There I connected with totally new subject matter that encompassed wilderness, mountains, rivers, stones and desert to eventually come full circle through the elements.
After Hurricane Katrina, I moved back to Louisiana because of family concerns. For the next three years, I opened my studio and taught art classes with a focus on nature study.
In 2015 I was given a retrospective, “Sustained Intimacy” at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, LA, highlighting my methodology with more than 60 artworks spanning a career of 35 years.
I feel most fully alive and inspired in the natural world. Combining art with nature study, gardening and cooking has engendered in me a celebratory way of living and creating that I want to communicate through my art.
I have exhibited nationally and internationally and have worked in Louisiana, New Mexico, Great Britain, Spain, Canada and Morocco.
Important influences in my life as artist and gardener are Paul Klee, Rudolph Steiner and my major art professor, Calvin Harlan.