I was born to be an artist.

Creativity is in my blood.

I was blessed to have been raised in a family flooded with creativity. The earliest memories that I have of myself are always with a crayon, pencil, or a paintbrush in my hands.

All through my school years I was forever doodling, drawing, painting or sketching something, somewhere. Spending most of my childhood years living on a farm in Southern Alberta, nestled at the base of the foothills just north of Cochrane, Alberta, I was surrounded by Inspiration and life. I was taught from a very young age to respect animals and to love them and so I try to capture that love, beauty and language in my work. Still to this day I feel that I have a better connection with animals than I do with people.

My family moved to Holland when I was 14. What a culture shock that was. Living there for 4 years I was blessed with possibility and opportunity, I became immersed in artistic culture and I knew in my heart and soul even then, that I wanted to be an artist.

Returning to Canada and attending the Alberta College of Art was a challenge and a struggle for me. I learned a lot here, mostly the technical side of art, but at the same time I struggled with the Institution's politics and what kind of artist they kept telling me that I should be. So after 3 years of it, I decided to leave and find my own direction as an artist.

Getting married and having kids slowed my art career down even more. I did manage to find some time to teach watercolor and Tole painting classes, and even to draw and paint a few pieces that I was able to put in some juried shows and exhibitions throughout Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan and even having some of my pieces going into private and corporate collections throughout Canada.

However something was always missing. I had a yearning in my soul and I always felt that I was not doing what I was meant to be doing and the Universe had a way of always telling me that this was not my path. So I made some life changes. I moved to a small hamlet in southern Saskatchewan, once again surrounding myself in natural Inspiration, and finally allowing my soul to follow its true path. Here I am setting up my studio " Missouri Breaks", focusing my energy and my life on my art.

Artist's Statement
Painting is my interpretation of the world around me. It allows others to see things the way that I see them.

There is much that is not seen so I paint what others only catch a glimpse of. I have never been afraid of color. Bold, bright colors inspired by the natural world around me. Nature is its own paint palette, layers of colors overlapping and dissecting, with contrasts of light and dark, all these underlying elements coming together to ignite our senses and inspire our creativity.

I take all this Inspiration and allow it flow through my eyes, through my paintbrush, and onto the surface of my canvas, disrupting the viewers idea of what that image should look like, challenging traditional boundaries and defying ordinary definition, enhancing the features I wish the viewer to see.

My unique style then becomes apparent in all the work that I do.
I see myself as a Contemporary western painter. Raised in southern Alberta on a farm, raising cattle and growing up on the back of a horse, to me, was a reflection of the Pioneer spirit of the west.