As a child I won poster contests and always impressed the teachers with my inspired responses to assignments. Majoring in visual art at the University of Colorado, I earned a BFA in drawing and painting.
Through many jobs in design, educational publishing, self-publishing and advertising, I realized that the picture-making part of every project excited me the most. I thrive on assignments, applying my own special magic to please clients. When I moved to Seattle I studied illustration at the School of Visual Concepts to build a more commercial portfolio, attracted a rep, and started to freelance as an illustrator.
This site shows many examples of my most successful and widely applicable illustration style. I’ve had the good fortune to work with wonderful designers from agencies representing a variety of businesses and institutions from all over the USA and Canada. The spirited colors and expressive line of this style works well in ads, on book jackets, packaging, posters, web pages, illustrated logos, and more! I’m no longer working as a commercial illustrator and have switched my energy to my fine art work. My vast library of illustration artwork is still available to contract as stock images. Please contact me to see if I have something to fit your needs!
Go to my Fine Art website to see how I work from the figure in watercolor and sumi-e, and see my watercolor paintings that are increasingly being accepted into juried art shows and winning awards.
As a bridge between my illustration and fine art work I taught Watercolor for Illustration at Bellevue College near Seattle for 9 years. I covered the basics of watercolor while the students learn the strategy and discipline of planning a painting as if working with an art director. Their surprise at achieving successful results after progressing through various challenges is thrilling. It’s fun to try to inspire them as my teachers have inspired me throughout my creative explorations. I also taught an Illustration Communications class for those developing an illustration portfolio.
I moved across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island at the end of summer 2017 to a big studio immersed in nature, but close to my Seattle roots, where I raised two artistic children and am part of a rich community of artists. Be sure to check out the links to some of my friend’s web sites on the Lively Links page. I put up with the dreary, wet winters here, conducive to indoor artwork, in order to swim in the beautiful lakes all summer inhaling mountain views with every breath. Since moving to Bainbridge Island, I’ve donned a wetsuit to embrace swimming in the much colder Puget Sound.