If you could go anywhere in the world that you haven’t been to where would you go?

Patagonia
New Zealand
Scotland
Iceland
Sardinia
Capri
the Dolomites
the Amalfi Coast
Lake Como
Austria
Alaska
far northern Canada
Bali
South Africa
the tulip fields in the Netherlands
Balise
Costa Rica

I’ve already been to Norway, Isle Royale, and Newfoundland, but I would like to go back.

If you could only eat two foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

I live on quite a lot of these already:

Salmon salads and green protein smoothies

What gives you inspiration to paint your beautiful art?

Being closely mindful of nature is important to me for mentally collecting beauty, color combos, compositional ideas, and textural experiences, but I don’t pull from these literally as much as use all that as a baseline vocabulary, through which my art says what it does. What my art has to say is inspired directly by my Creator, who is working through me and prompting me. Since that same Creator made all that I witness and respond to, as well as whatever I actually am, I’d have to say the Creator of the universe is the Source and inspiration of all I do, including my art. The closer I am to that Source the better my artwork is.

If you could travel back in time and meet someone and have a conversation, who would it be?

I would like to meet Mary Baker Eddy and ask her questions regarding Christian Science: in particular about how to get uniform results applying spiritual laws through prayer.

Do you buy books on Amazon?

I try not to. Two blocks from my house is a wonderful independent bookstore run by a friend– it is ByrdsBooks– which you too could use by mail if you don’t have your own independent bookstore. I use the public library a lot and love their interlibrary loan service which pulls books from all over the state. I also go to a huge yearly library sale, where I buy inexpensive used books that have been donated (see a blog post about that here).  Additionally, I buy second hand books at abe.com whose search engine includes most of the used book sellers in the world (I have purchased from there from Australia, England and the US). I use neither a kindle nor Audible, but instead get my audio books from Libro.fm, which supports the independent bookstore of your choice.

What experiences were pivotal and formative in your childhood?

Many I’m sure! Here is what comes to mind most immediately

• camping, painting, and writing poetry in the national parks: hence I feel a need to be outside, be contemplative, and very much appreciate nature!
• having a creative artist mother, who taught me that “copying is not art,” and whose art books I poured over from an early age: hence I feel a need to paint and be creative!
• having an aunt who was the only woman in her law school class at the University of Michigan, and was an independent female professional before that was common: hence I feel a need to be independent, capable, and defend women’s rights.
• because I was a late reader: I really appreciate the whole world that can be accessed through books, more than most people who take it for granted.
• contrariwise, because I was so ahead of others in math: this precipitated the whole structural engineering detour of my life, but also brought me to the east coast, where I met my husband.
• growing up as an atheist was also formative: this allowed me to be very skeptical and discerning spiritually, but also left me yearning for divine connection.

Could you advise what paint is best for Gelli Printing?

Golden Fluid Acrylics are my favorite. They are a perfect consistency and have a strong pigment load.

If you want to work slower and don’t want the paint to dry so fast (like when I’m carefully placing botanicals) I use Golden Open Acrylics because they dry less quickly.

Both of those tend to be expensive because they are artist quality, so if you want to use something less expensive, try Amsterdam Acrylics.

Let me know any questions you want me to answer

If you have some questions for me, send them along, either in the comments below any post, replying to a subscription email, or here on my contact form.  It has taken a while to collect enough questions for a post, so if you send in more questions, I’ll answer them more than a couple times a year!