Photography:
Mother Nature was the first artists. I am just a student.
I got my first camera when I was ten. It was a hand-me-down Brownie. When I showed everyone my first prints, no one understood them, but I was hooked.
I was a photojournalist in the U.S. Army for four years, learning the basics and developing miles of black and white film. After the service, I attended Portland State University and achieved a BS in Biology. At PSU, I met John Barna, an incredible teacher and artist, who helped me find my focus.
Photography has taught me to find myself in the world around me. The way I capture images reflects the way I address the world. As I look outward I see all the other worlds available to me.
I love to find the rhythms of nature and the beauty of the mundane. The pattern of feathers, the texture of a lizard's skin or the poetry of random detritus remind me to step out of my carefully ordered existence and experience life.
My husband, Byron, and I moved ot Estacada to abandon the noise and stress of Portland. It actually worked! We have an acre on which we grow a garden and keep two goats and three dogs.
We love to travel! I have been to Belize, Ecuador (including the Galapagos Islands), Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and Australia. We have continued to visit Belize and are thinking of purchasing property there. Bryon has become a wonderful traveling companion.
Animals are a great source of inspiration to me -- from my dogs' loyalty to the colors of the birds we feed. At home and around the world, I observe, and sometimes capture, nature.
