Statement

Throughout my teaching career of four decades, I devoted my time and energy to my students, creating environments conducive to the acquisition of knowledge and exploration. I have worked with students of all ages, from preschool through college. My major focus has been teaching in the Santa Ana Unified School District.

Growing up in Los Angeles I was exposed to all kinds of art by my mother, an arts lover and museum educator. I grew up with the dinosaurs at La Brea Tar Pits, at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Barnsdall Park, and Watts Towers. I earned my BA in Studio Art at UCSB in 1978 and my MFA in Studio Art at UCI in 1980. While at UCI, I became a part of the Artists-in-the-Schools program, funded by a grant from the California Arts Council. This became my life’s work for twenty-nine years. During this time I also taught drawing and watercolor painting at Saddleback College for twenty years. When the Artists-in-Schools program was eliminated I moved on to teach drawing and painting at Godinez Fundamental High School for fourteen years. I have great love for all of the students I have worked with, be it with little ones at Anneliese’s School in Laguna Beach, elementary students at all of Santa Ana’s many elementary schools, middle school students through Pacific Symphony’s arts-X-press program at UCI, to high school students at Godinez and college students at Saddleback and Santa Ana Colleges. In addition, I also taught classes for children, adults, and teachers at local museums, including Bowers Museum, Laguna Art Museum and Orange County Museum of Art.

All of these experiences have enriched my life, as a person and as an artist. Inventing many, many art projects over the years was excellent creative brain exercise, as was giving students feedback and helping them with problem solving. I always knew this, but now that I’ve retired (June 2021) I’m alone with my own artmaking, I feel stronger in my practice. Over my decades of teaching I did make my own work, but had little time/energy to devote to that. My work did evolve, yet the quantity was small. I was more prolific in my mind… playing with ideas and imagining what they could become. 

I am the mother of two adult daughters, my creative diptych (and definitely my most important contribution to the world), who kept me very busy, happily so. I have always known that as a woman artist, my life would be in phases, that I couldn’t do everything at the same time, but that over time I would get to experience it all. Thankfully, my husband has been consistently supportive of all my passionate endeavors. I knew I would have the opportunity to live as a full-time artist after teaching… and here I am! It’s an adjustment and I’m enjoying molding a new way of living… the dynamic rhythms of spending more time making, starting, evaluating, refining, and the struggle of knowing when a piece is done. I’ve given a lot of advice over the years, and now I have to listen to that.

Gratitude goes to my supportive family, friends, and students. 

Huge appreciation to Celsa Dockstader for facilitating the creation of this website.

Thanks to SAC for giving me the space to share my work, one year out from retiring from teaching.