After art school, I discovered Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado, where Hiroki Morinoue teaches Japanese Woodblock, [mokuhanga] meaning wood-print. After my first workshop, I said to Hiroki, "This is what I want to do the rest of my life." He asked, "Are you sure?" My answer was "Yes!"
My mind, body, and spirit feel integrated as I create mokuhanga inspired by traditional Japanese design and customs. I feel grounded when I’m carving wood and pulling prints. Mokuhanga is a very ‘Zen’ art experience for me.
My work is about the process of creating art. The images begin as drawings. Traditional Japanese tools are used to carve images into wood. Using watercolor and rice paste I print on Japanese paper with a baren by hand. Several years ago I experimented with Pochoir [stencil] and Kiri-e [cut paper] techniques and combined them with mouhanga. A series of collage was created with Kiri-e and mokuhanga.
In 2013, I attended CODEX, a fine book art fair in Berkeley, California, and met a Japanese woman from Mitsui Fine Arts. She was exhibiting her family’s textile design books [Zuanchō] from their old warehouse in Kyoto, Japan. I had never seen Zuancho before and I was fascinated with the mokuhanga textile designs in her books from pre-WWII. Book Arts was the new direction and medium for me to master.
In my last workshop at Whitman College in their Japanese Center with Tuula Moilanen, a master printer from Finland, I learned new techniques and how to teach mokuhanga more effectively. The search for my art medium began, and ends with mokuhanga, my passion. Art has taken me places I never imagined I could travel.
Thirty years of mokuhanga has led me to create original textile designs, print with mokuhanga, and bind my prints into books. This long process fulfills my love of Artist Books, textiles, and mokuhanga.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2023 Teaching Family Art Workshops at Arts For All Nevada, Reno, NV
2023 Presented Workshop, Relief Hand-Made Paper, St. Mary's Art Center,
Virginia City, NV
2021 First Lady of Nevada Presents, 'Artist of the Month' June, 2021
First Lady of Nevada, artist of the month
2020 Guest Curator, "Ink, Paper, Print" for Capital City Arts Initiative, (CCAI)
Carson City Community Center, Sierra Gallery, and at Western Nevada
College, Main Gallery https://www.ccainv.org/ink-paper-print
2020 Virtual International Tour for "Stronger Together Summit"
Osteoporosis Art created for UCB Pharma Company
2019 Invited to demonstrate, " Mokuhanga " Wakamatsu Farm 150th Festival,
Placerville, CA
2019 Invited to demonstrate, " Mokuhanga " Nevada Artist Association Carson
City, NV
2018 Appointed, "Osteoporosis Advocate" by UCB Inc. A Pharma Company
2018 Workshop, "Introduction to Mokuhanga "
San Luis Obispo Museum of Art San Luis Obispo, CA
2017 Presented Workshop, "Introduction to Mokuhanga"
Lake Tahoe Community College CONNECT, South Lake Tahoe, CA
2017 Presented Workshop, "Introduction to Mokuhanga",
Valhalla Art, Music and Theater Festival, South Lake Tahoe, CA
2015 Guest Curator, "Exploring Boundaries: Book as Art"
Incline Village Library, Incline Village, NV
2015 Guest Curator, "The Artist Book: Divergent Perspectives
Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, NV
2015 Presented Workshop, "Hand Made Paper" Camp Galilee
95th Anniversary, Glenbrook, NV
2015 Presented Workshop, "Introduction to Hand Made Paper”
Atelier, Truckee, CA
2015 Presented Workshop, “Japanese 4 Hole Binding” Brewery Art Center
Carson City, NV
2015 Advisory Board, CCAI, Carson City, NV
EXHIBITIONS:
2024 Solo "A Thread Runs Through It", Hand-Made Paper Interactive Installation, In July for Artown, Sierra Arts Annex Gallery, Reno, NV
2021 Solo "COVID Grief Through Art" Hand-Made Paper, an Interactive
Installation, The Depot Gallery, Sparks, NV
2021 Group Exhibition "First Lady of Nevada exhibits Art
at the Governor's Mansion", Carson City, NV
2020 Group Exhibition "Resist", Printmaker's Conspiracy, Sierra Arts, Reno, NV
2019 Group Exhibition "3rd Annual Trinity Episcopal Church
National Juried Exhibition", Sacramento, CA
2019 Group Exhibition "12" x 12", Sierra Arts, Reno, NV
2019 Group Exhibition "Impact", Sierra Arts, Reno, NV
2019 Group Exhibition "Off the Press", Lake Tahoe Community College
South Lake Tahoe, CA
2018 Group Exhibition "The New Printmaker's Conspiracy"
Nevada Fine Art Gallery, Reno, NV
2017 Solo "Ossified" St. Mary’s Art Center, Virginia City, NV
2017 Solo "Japanese Woodblock Prints"
Valhalla Art, Music & Theater Festival, South Lake Tahoe, CA
2017 Group Exhibition "Artrepreneurs", Adam’s Hub, Carson City, NV
2016 Group Exhibition "Reno Book Arts", Atelier, Truckee, CA
2015 Guest Curator, “The Artists Book: Divergent Perspective"
Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, NV
2015 Guest Curator “History of the Book”, Minden Public Library, Minden, NV
2015 Guest Curator, “Artists Books”, South Valley Library, Zephyr Cove, NV
2015 Solo “Japanese Woodblock Prints & Collage”
Carson Valley Arts Council, Minden, NV
2014 Group Exhibition. Wild Women Artists, Reno, NV
GRANTS/AWARDS:
2021 American Rescue Plan Grant,
National Endowment for the Arts and Nevada Art Council
2018 Professional Development Grant, Nevada Arts Council Carson City, NV
2017 Residency, Valhalla, South Lake Tahoe, Jackpot Grant
Nevada Art Council, Carson City, NV
2009 Jackpot Grant, 2009, 2007, 2004, Nevada Art Council, Carson City, NV
EDUCATION;
2008 Summer Workshop, Basel School of Design, Basel, Switzerland
1990 Certificate in Printmaking, Glassell School of Art, Houston, Texas
1965 B.S. Clothing & Textiles, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma