Experience of New England, the southern USA and the eastern seaboard shaped my early and middle years, overlapping with relocation to Vancouver Island and studies at Shawnigan Lake School and the University of Victoria. There, fine arts and translation of a work on petroglyphs of the Lower Amur complemented undergraduate learning in Slavonic Studies.
Travels in the former Soviet Union fed a love of ancient wooden architecture and craft as art. Later, I worked as a Guide/Interpreter at the Emily Carr Gallery, Legislature and Heritage Conservation Branch, exposure to art forms stretched from prehistoric pictographs to Victorian architecture and local art history. In another life, I would have been an architect and designer of space for inspired living. I am grateful to have had opportunity to explore these interests as a housing provider and design lead in a number of projects.
Leadership studies grounded a post overseas and nearly a decade living and working far from home in Canada. Initially in Hong Kong, then expanding to Thailand with activities in Europe, settling back into Victoria was delayed by eighteen months for a design project in Cyprus. That exciting opportunity involved collaboration with an antiquities conservator creating mosaics and a local family business fabricating my furniture designs for an private villa. Home again on theOaklands Rise Woonerfin Victoria, British Columbia, I find that all of this experience informs my current work.
This gallery provides a sampling of retrospective and current pieces to illustrate my evolving range of interests. These include works in acrylic, line & wash, and digital media. Currently I am working in pastel, alcohol ink, digital and sculptural forms. Perhaps surprisingly, some of these incorporate reclaimed materials as an approach to One Planet Living.
Explore! If you would like to know more about my journey or writings, my IRM Strategies website consolidates access to multi-faceted interests.