My surrealistic, acrylic paintings delight in the weird and wonderful. They are portals into a world where the boundaries of reality can be bent, manipulated, and conformed. My work explores many themes, such as home, childhood, memory, patterns, nature, humor, space, and fairytales.

As a child my parents regularly brought me to antique stores, where I became lost in bins of vintage photos and yearbooks. Similarly, during the renovation of the old farmhouse that would became our home, my parents unearthed original photos of the farmers and families that homesteaded that property. The ancient and stoic-looking people in these photos immediately captured my imagination, transporting me through time and space. I wondered about their lives, personalities, worries and dreams. The timelessness of vintage images provides an endless supply of mythical and curious characters for me to draw upon. They produce a rich soil for my paintings to take root, into history.

The narrative quality of my work is fueled by an insatiable love of fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales, mystery and folklore. Because storytelling is central to the way I approach each painting, every image is like a page in a book. I find the tension between playful and poignant to be most true to life, and the key to a really good story. Since raising a family, my awareness of this reality has been heightened. Seldom does a day pass without my children jarring the heavy moments of my mind with their curiosity, creativity, humor, and basic needs. Being surrounded by a neighborhood full of children also reawakened a love of imaginative living.

I am grateful for the opportunity that painting has given me to escape, even if for a moment, into a world of my own making. A world where I can marvel, laugh, ruminate, and process the weight of the day. A world where anything is possible.

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Chickens on the Run, 30x24, acrylic on panel, $3500

Ducks in the Wind, 24x20, acrylic on panel, $2200

Heartland, 36x48, acrylic on panel, $5200