Where did you grow up, and what was it like to grow up there? 
I grew up in Central, Illinois. Not Chicago. Not anywhere near Chicago. Cornfields. Southern drawls. We would go to Missouri for vacations, to the St. Louis Six Flags. Just to be clear. Because, when I moved up here for college in the 90's, everyone always assumed Illinois meant Chicago or the Chicago suburbs and really, I might as well have lived in the middle of Kentucky as far as that goes. Growing up in a town of 3K folks (county seat) was how you would imagine it. I went to school with the same kids for 13 years. My graduating class maybe had 60 people.  You get the picture. By the time I was a teenager in the early 90's I had my sites on "as far away from here as possible". It took me a lot of growing up to realize it wasn't the place I was running from, but really just my own pain and negative self beliefs that would follow me wherever I went. You know "wherever you go, there you are." I've lived in many places and that will always be true.

When did you first discover your love for art? 
I don't think it was a discovery. It's genetic. Nature/Nurture, always a little of both. But it's not like I grew up going to art galleries or museums or anything like that. It's just passed down and I see it in others....those that will never stop making....because we really cannot physically stop. I get it from my dad's side of the family, but I'm sure some of my grit comes from both sides. But my dad always made sure I had something to draw with. When I was young we would always do "back and forth" drawings or play a "game of face". I'd never heard anyone call it the fancy "Exquisite Corpse" until a few years ago when I worked at Abel. And my grandmother was a hobby painter, her homes were always filled with paintings she had done. And when my Aunt Cindy was younger she painted and although she didn't continue to paint, her artistic eye always shines in her interior design and her fashion sense. My Uncle Fred was a writer and artist who lived in California my whole life. He published a few small press books, wrote for magazines. He was a huge influence on me- proof that I could live a creative life, even if I didn't know what that looked like for me when I was young. I mean- we really never know what it's going to look like.

Tell me about your educational background. How did you become an artist?
Again, I don't think someone "becomes" an artist. I don't think anyone would choose this life. I mean, it's hard to make a living, raise a kid, pay rent. It feels like you are always fighting for folks to value art in a world that values sports and entertainment and fast fashion a lot more. But it would kill my spirit to give up on my art. I suppose if someone just has limited resources they could decide to "become" an artist- quit the corporate job and follow their dream- we all have our different paths. I don't underestimate the privilege I've had to be able to go to art school and follow this path. I think there are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes that artists are just free spirit creatures covered in paint accidently drinking their paint water- but most of us are entrepreneurs-we manage our websites, etsy shops, commissions, selling prints to boutiques, participating in markets, writing grant letters, applying to galleries- all while raising kids and working part-time jobs to make ends meet.

I have a BFA from MIAD in Milwaukee. I graduated with a degree in Drawing in 1999. (After a semester at Parsons in NYC for Fashion Design my sophomore year, I transferred back to the comforts of the midwest) I also have an MFA in Textile Design from RISD in Providence, Rhode Island.

How did your style evolve into what it is today? 
It took me a very long time to begin to be vulnerable with my art, just as long as it took me to be a more vulnerable person. They go hand in hand. There is SO MUCH pressure when you are young and just starting out to find your voice and I struggled with that a lot. But looking back over the past 30 years, I see the main thread is that I never stopped. I think I tried on all kinds of ways of making art just like I tried on music and fashion, always trying to figure out what fit, what felt like "me". And that's how you find your voice, because it just sort of unfolds right before your eyes. For some of us, emerging is not something you do in your 20's or in your 30's...it's a lifelong evolution. I just learned how to trust myself like 4 years ago, so it's like everything is new again. I think we are only limited by our own self beliefs. So I am still very much learning different mediums and learning that I can do things the way I do them and that's exactly all I need to do. After doing a very deep dive with self portraits for a few years, I ended up with this FECIMCS Series because I needed levity and I needed to paint these interiors because they have meaning for me. Now I see where the two might possibly merge together.

What’s your main medium and why?
For years I mainly used acrylics and gouache, but in the past few years I started using water soluble oils because I've found I can push my image much further. I love how oil paint has forced me to slow down. There is so much magic that happens when I put a painting away for a week or two and begin again.

Tell me about your artistic process and the techniques you employ. How do you start a piece?
I always start by drawing my image onto the surface, whether that's paper or canvas or panel. And I don't want to underestimate the value of writing as a part of my process. Work usually begins after I've done quite a bit of writing and things pop up in my writing that make me want to paint. I always write down my ideas and then just try and lay it out on the panel.

Who and what are your inspirations for your art?
I think life inspires art I don't really have a strong definitive answer- it's just all swimming around me all the time- family, storytelling, memoir, nature, design, color, pattern, maximalism, outsider art, walks in nature, walks in the city, movies, deep thinkers, mushrooms, ghost stories, quilts, thrifting, road trips, old photos, the mundane, abandoned homes, small towns, neuroscience, quantum physics, cats.

What are your thoughts on Surrealism?
Life imitates art, and art imimates life.