After growing up on a Midwestern family farm, I took formal art training. Many "mediums and messes" later, art is still my connection to life.
Through ink/beeswax paintings, block prints, handmade goat milk soaps, and calligraphy (which have all evolved in harmony with nature's ways) I express joy and hope for the future.
INK & BEESWAX PAINTINGS have a life of their own. Working with no brushes, but rather, my hand-dipped beeswax candles and resources around me, I scoot & scatter, drip & dribble, scrape & shake transparent lightfast inks onto archival paper.
Candles were in the paint box when traveling and as I put down brushes to use the candles + nature's items around me (sticks, porcupine quills, rocks, grass, moss, sand etc) those tools became yet another connection between the finished art and my life.
Every painting is a new challenge since I use different tools each time!
By the time these paintings are framed they are waxed, painted, scraped many times free of excess beeswax and sometimes ironed onto mat board.
BLOCK PRINTS, in contrast to the paintings, are planned carefully in advance and controlled through every step. Inspired by rural life with gardening and all manner of 2 and 4-legged creatures, they are either worked with the back of a wooden spoon, or cranked in an old cast iron press which works equally well for flowers and goat cheese. An array of colored inks are used to print from blocks cut of wood or linoleum, or found objects. Limited editions are purposely kept small and I often use the reduction method of cutting so that when finished, the block cannot be used ever again to print the edition. Truly limited!
Making GRANDMOTHER'S GOAT MILK SOAP is a not only a creative endeavor but also a connection to my past.
Made rom a specially formulated recipe for ArtistryFarm goat milk, these soaps contain natural ingredients like aloe from the kitchen, clay from the creek, local honey, violets, oatmeal and other good stuff from ArtistryFarm gardens, orchards and fields, etc. They NEVER contain color or scent and are simply healthy for mind and body!
ArtistryFarm soaps are made with fresh goat milk from this herd, poured into Grandmother’s butcher trays and cut by hand so size/shape of each bar varies. All soaps are cured for months before sales, thus gentle on skin.
Many years ago, I took a simple calligraphy course and it filled a hole in my artistic life!
From posters to commissions, to everyday embellishment, I use calligraphy (beautiful writing) regularly.