I have been an artist and children's illustrator for almost 30 years. After graduating from Miami University with a Bachelor of Fine Art, I started my career working as an artist for Gibson Greeting Cards in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1994, I have worked as a freelance artist creating artwork for over 30 children's books, and countless designs for giftware, giftwrap and greeting cards. Since 2010 I have been creating fine art painted paper collages of the Ohio landscape.
In my collage work, I paint acrylic paint on tissue paper, newsprint, recycled brown bags, book and poetry pages. I collect these painted colors into a palette to use at the start of a painting. I then tear, and sometimes precisely cut the paper, and adhere it to canvas in layers. This technique creates a painting that at first may appear as an oil painting, but on closer inspection, small pieces of paper, written words, newsprint, drawing and poetry become visible and provide additional meaning. 
The ways in which nature and the viewer can abstract the open landscape with color blocks, shapes and texture lends itself to the torn and cut pieces of collage. The randomness of the brushstrokes on the paper provides vibrancy and natural motion within the artwork. 
I work from photographs that I take myself, driving the backroads of western Ohio. I am inspired by the ever changing landscape and weather in Ohio as well as the flat open countryside, bright sunrises and expansive sunsets punctuated by barns, and silos. I want those who view my work to see and appreciate the beauty around us every day of the year in Ohio.