I’ve always cared about the environment since a young age. I watched my grandmother picking up beer cans off the side of the road when we would take walks by her cabin in the woods, always recycling the best I can. But until I started having children I didn’t really pay attention to how much plastic waste we have on this planet. We don’t really recycle much of it. Most of it ends up in the landfill or the ocean. So I started to change my habits to eliminate as much plastic from our lives as possible. And you know what? It’s really difficult! Even with all my efforts I still have boxes of plastic. I decided to use it in my art to keep it out of the landfill and bring more awareness to the issue. I don’t want my children to live in a polluted wasteland.

I was born and raised in Wenatchee, WA, in fact my family has been here for quite some time. My great grandparents settled here in 1923 and before that in Leavenworth, WA in 1907. I grew up watching my dad paint giant billboards, make beautiful sandblasted and gilded glass signs. So the arts have always been in my blood. I graduated from Wenatchee high school, earned my AAS degree from Wenatchee Valley College, and my BFA degree from Central Washington University in 2005 with a focus in metalsmithing/jewerly. Although I have been working with a lot of plastic lately, I also love to paint, play with clay, bang on metal, and felt wool. No material is off limits for me.