About
The erasure of my childhood home, hometown, and personal ecosystem by the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, indelibly shaped my current artistic practice. According to scientists, the fire’s massive destruction was attributed to prolonged heat and drought—likely driven by climate change. Environmental degradation suddenly became personal and embodied.
A lifelong nature lover, I spent much of my childhood in trees, forming an intimate bond with my home place. Its loss reshaped my sense of security and belonging. Two years later, I and many others remained deeply affected by the fire. I began interviewing survivors. Over and again, they shared stories of profound reorientation to the ideas of safety and control. Personal reckonings, considered within the broader context of environmental degradation, became central to my artistic practice.
My work explores relationships between people and their environments. I am drawn to materials that bear the marks of anthropogenic (human caused) harm—the detritus of combustion, personal effects altered by catastrophe, bedrock exposed when topsoil is stripped away. These elements reflect the tensions between human desire and ecological reality, movement and immobility, agency and vulnerability.
Through research-driven practice, infused with community engagement, direct dialogue, and science, I investigate how people experience place, change, and loss—and what cultivates their will to care.
At its core, my work asks: Can informed, respectful interaction with nature—and one another—nurture a deeper ethic of reciprocal care? And, how might we build on that care to assuage an uncertain future?
Bio
Select Exhibits and Galleries
2024- Bidwell Park, Chico, CA, Erosion Line, community-built environmental artwork, artist/designer and facilitator
2024 Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA, In Flux: Recalibrating the Unknown; lead coordinator and curatorial assistant for this exhibition featuring arworks from 175 alumni of San Francisco Art Institute
2024 Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA, Articles of Belonging; project lead of multi-media and multi-site collaborative installation within the In Flux exhibition
2022 Walter and McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, Thresholds: 2022 MFA Final Exhibit
2021 Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Awards Exhibition, SOMArts, San Francisco, CA
2021 Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, curator and exhibitor for Fragile Estate, juried group exhibit
2021 Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, Opening
2021 Chico Art Center, Chico, CA, California Contemporary Sculpture, juried group exhibit
2020 de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, de Young Open, juried group exhibit
2020 Valene Smith Museum of Anthropology, CSU Chico, Fire and Water: Elements of Change, invitational exhibit
2020 The Art Gallery, Diablo Valley College, Walnut Creek, CA, Fire!, invitational group exhibit
2019 Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA, Reflections, juried group exhibit
2019 Schafer Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, SF, CA, curator and exhibitor for Mutually Assured, juried group exhibit
2018 Atrium Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2018 Embark Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Taking Temperature, juried group exhibit
2018 Chico Art Center, Chico, CA, Livable Planet?, juried group exhibit
2015 Museum of Northern California Art fundraiser event, Chico, CA, The Pale and Beyond, five person exhibit by the Art Officials
2014-15 Gallery 2110, Sacramento, CA
2009- Art Obsessions Gallery, Kings Beach, CA
2009-11 Art Attack Gallery, Incline Village, NV
2008- Vista Gallery, Tahoe Vista, CA
2007 Federal District Court, Reno, NV, Solo exhibit
2007 Catherine Bouwer Fine Art Gallery, Reno, NV
2007 Carole Sesko Contemporary Art, Truckee, CA, Truckee-Tahoe: Modern Regional Art, group exhibit
2006 Carole Sesko Contemporary Art, Truckee, CA, Collaboration: Party of 3, three person exhibit
2005 Northern California Arts, Inc, Sacramento, CA, Bold Expressions 50th Annual Open International Exhibition
Education
2022 San Francisco Art Institute, MFA with Honors, Studio Arts
1990, University of California, Berkeley Extension Program, Certificate in Landscape Architecture
1982, California State University, Chico, BA in Chinese Studies
Selected Awards
2024- Bidwell Park Artist-in-Residence, Chico, CA
2022 Outstanding Graduate Student Award, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2021 Cadogan Art Scholarship award, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2021 Isaac M. Walter Sculpture Prize, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2021 Nominee, International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Award
2018 Outstanding Regional Environmental Awareness Award for Carbon: Bristlecone Pines, Livable Planet? exhibit, Chico Art Center, Chico, CA,
2010 Best in Show for Geometry of Horses, Horse HeART National Equine Art Competition and Exhibit, Incline Village, NV
2010 Mustang Spirit Award for Night Horse, Horse HeART National Equine Art Competition and Exhibit, Incline Village, NV
2005 Award of Excellence for Quercus lobata ‘Serpentine,’ Bold Expressions 50th Annual Open International Exhibition, Northern California Arts, Inc. , Sacramento, CA