I was born in Minneapolis in 1968, and my first memory of being intrigued by art was on a visit to the Walker Art Center with my Mom. I was in elementary school at the time, and as I stood in front of Chuck Close’s “Big Self-Portrait,” I couldn’t believe this photo-like image was a painting. I remember staring at it for a long time, trying to figure out how something like this could have been painted.
Early artistic endeavors included making my own comic books, as I hoped to grow up and have a job working at Marvel Comics. Late in high school, as I was sleeping through slide shows of Impressionist artist in my Humanities class, I started a transition from making comics to drawing in sketchbooks, making art in a variety of styles, and deciding I wanted to pursue art in college.
Jump ahead a few years, and after graduating from Drew University with a degree in art history, my first job was working at Pace/MacGill Gallery on East 57th Street in NYC, where I had an opportunity to meet Chuck Close and visit his studio several times through this job. I was never in a position to tell Chuck of his painting’s effect on sparking my initial interest in art, but it makes for a good story, don’t you think? It’s like it all came full circle, from seeing something fascinating by some artist in a museum as a kid to meeting that artist in person as an adult.
I worked at Pace MacGill for 5 years, and during this time would be immersed in the art of blue-chip photographers during the day (Irving Penn, Robert Frank, Emmet Gowin, and so many more), and come home and paint almost every night. Living in NYC as a twenty-something with access to all that the city had to offer was a pretty amazing time.
My art curating and dealing activities started in the mid-1990s, and marriage and parenthood in the late 1990s found me taking off the “dealer” hat and just focusing on making art. After ten years of trying to make my mark in the New York art world from every angle (working at a gallery, having a gallery, making and promoting my own art), I decided to shift gears and go back to school to learn web design. While this new career held my attention, I tried to stay involved in art in any way as I could, and some of my web design clients included artists and art galleries, and of course I continued making art.
It’s now 2023, and my client work and web design activities are slowing down and I’m turning back to a fuller focus on art again … the next chapter waits to be written.