I am a retired reference and research librarian. Before focusing more fully on creating art, I was a librarian at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga California. Prior to that I was tenured librarian at California State University Fullerton providing library research methods classes in a variety of disciplines, but most specifically to graduate and undergraduate Art students.
I have a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, and an M.A. in English Literature with an emphasis in 20th century English and American women poets. Though I have no formal education in Art or Art History, I have a passion for learning about art, art movements, and artists. I am entirely self taught in that regard. My specific area of research has been, and continues to be the art and life of the post-impressionist British artist Vanessa Bell. In 2004, I applied for, and was awarded a sabbatical to do research in Britain on Vanessa Bell. The result of that sabbatical and subsequent research was a monograph, Mistress of the Brush and Madonna of Bloomsbury: The Art and Life of Vanessa Bell. The book, a biographical sketch and comprehensive annotated bibliography was published in 2015 by Cecil Woolf Publishers, London. A reference work, it is in the collections of major academic institutions including Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, University of Victoria, and the University of Washington.
I am driven by my curiosity, love of learning, doing research and creating art . Because of my professional life spent in libraries, books, text, and reading are essential elements of my work. I employ color, form, line, space, texture, various materials, and content to create two and three dimensional artist’s books, as well as collage and assemblage objects to communicate and tell a story in a unique way.
My artistic journey is one of 21 included in the book, Beyond 70: The Lives of Creative Women by Stacy Russo. It was published by Nauset Press in February 2023.
Exhibitions:
My work has been included in various exhibitions including:
2025 Bedford Gallery international juried exhibition, Beyond Color: The Language of Black and White, Walnut Creek CA
2025 Lamorinda Arts Council, People in Places Doing Things: How Artists Examine Culture, Orinda CA
2024 ArtsBenicia juried exhibition, Forma Natura Nature as Source, Benicia CA
2024 ArtsBenicia juried exhibition, Animalia, Benicia CA
2024 Lamorinda Arts Council, The Stories We Tell, Orinda CA
2024 Sebastapol Center for the Arts international juried exhibition Pulp: Book & Paper Arts
2023 ArtsBenicia juried exhibition Properties of Water, Benicia CA
2023 Sacramento Fine Arts Center Juried Exhibition, A Taste for Art, Carmichael, CA
2023 Ekphrasis Project and Exhibition, Art Gallery at the Orinda Library, Orinda, CA
2023 13th Annual Juried Exhibition: The Art of a Story, Village Theatre and Art Gallery, Danville
2022 Exhibition by 4 Bay Area Artists, Lamorinda Arts Council, Art Gallery Orinda Library, Orinda, CA
2021 Inspired by the Greats, Lamorinda Arts Alliance Juried exhibition, Art Gallery at the Orinda Library, Orinda CA