Biography

Beginning my art I sought out the finest learning institutions: Art Center College of Design, and California College of Arts & Crafts. However, first hand experiences living in the San Francisco Bay Area and participating in the studio sessions of musicians, dancers, actors and writers during the 70′s could never be duplicated in a classroom.

San Francisco, 1974-1976, my fashion design boutique I designed for both men and women, importing cloth from various countries to find comfortable and ethnic patterned materials and hand-woven fabrics.

By 1976 I had moved to Florida and begun working with community based organizations in program planning, grant writing, and logo/brochure design. Projects with private and county agencies resulted in funding by Florida Humanities Council (1989) and positive follow-up evaluations. I also coordinated two statewide cultural conferences in 1990 and 1991, including PR and post-conference documents.

An ongoing project started in 1989, directly prompted by Robert F. Thompson, Ph.D., is “Florida Burial Shrine Project,” a research survey of the decorative motifs of Florida’s African American burial art and its African origins and diffusion.

Fine Art Photography is my primary focus within the spectrum of the visual arts, but since the mid-80s I have developed large-scale, photo-based, multimedia installations which allow the viewer to become more integrated in the artwork, physically and conceptually.

While gallery and museum exhibitions are not frowned upon, my work has also moved beyond the white cubic gallery space back into the natural environment where I have chosen to work with lowly but sacred materials of the earth such as: rocks, leaves, branches, bones, feathers, and water. These natural materials I consider sacred and gifts from Nature.