I graduated from Kalamazoo College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan, where I studied English literature and Art. As a sophomore, I participated in the college's extensive study abroad program, spending the summer semester at the Université de Caen, Normandy, France. After graduation, I studied painting with renowned New York painter Jules Kirschenbaum. I moved to New Mexico in 1995 and now live in Albuquerque. In NM, I studied encaustic (pigmented wax) painting with master artists Ellen Koment and Paula Roland. Online, I learned from Pamela Caughey to paint with cold wax medium and oil. I have exhibited internationally and my work is included in the Encaustic Art Museum’s permanent collection, featured in the book "Encaustic Art in the Twenty-First Century (2016)" and also included in numerous catalogs. In 2022, my acrylic painting "Two Worlds" was purchased by the Art in Public Places program for display in an Albuquerque government building. My primary medium is acrylic.

My work is about identity, as shaped by genetics, language and place. The astronomy scroll triptych in my AIE gallery explores our human place in the universe as we currently understand it, based on scientific exploration by instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope. The scrolls include “SN 1054,” “Pluto’s Moons” and “Jupiter.” Each scroll is 12 feet long and 22 inches wide, made with pigment ink on Tyvek.

SN 1054 depicts a super nova that was —in the year 1054—simultaneously described by Chinese and Native American astronomers living thousands of miles apart. The scroll simulates text from the Chinese observations, as well as a petroglyph image—believed to be the super nova—created by tribes living in New Mexico and Arizona and using Chaco Canyon as a ceremonial gathering place. Centuries later, the heart of SN 1054, known as the Crab Nebula, was captured as a composite image from data collected by Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer telescope observations.

Pluto’s Moons. Demoted as a planet for its lack of gravitational pull, Pluto was monitored by the Hubble telescope to learn more about its moons. Its largest moon, Charon, and two other moons were known to astronomers at the time of the New Horizons spacecraft launch (2006). Hubble discovered two more moons—Nix and Hydra. Text at the scroll’s bottom references Greek names for the moons. Pluto is currently regaining respect as a planet.

Jupiter. This scroll depicts the horoscopes for the Galileo spacecraft on the date of its launch (October 18,1989 at Cape Canaveral) and the date of its demise (September 21, 2003, when it was deliberately crashed into Jupiter due to its radioactive payload). The lower portion of the scroll depicts the many (more than 60) moons of Jupiter as well as its famous red spot. The Hubble Space Telescope was used to monitor the planet’s red spot and the banded appearance of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere.

I created QR (quick response) codes for each of these scrolls so that viewers can hear the “sound” of each planet using the QR code reader incorporated in most smart phones. Science tells us that in order for sound to travel, there must be molecules for it to travel through. On Earth, sound travels to our ears via vibrating air molecules. But space is a vacuum and in the vast, empty areas between the stars and planets, there are no molecules to vibrate. However, planets do emit radiation. Such emissions can be recorded and converted to sound waves, which humans hear. Thanks to NASA, each planet now has a sound. The codes link the viewer to NASA images of the respective planet and its sound. The code for the SN 1054 scroll depicts an animation of how super novas are made.

If these works are selected for display in an embassy, I would prefer that they be exhibited as a group.