My Story

My mom also loved to do tea-leaf readings and tell fortunes with cards and passed this interest along to  me. This came from her childhood as she would often accompany my grandmother to readings by a  lady named Pearl during World War II when my grandmother anxiously searched for hope and insight  into what the future might hold for her, her husband serving overseas, and her family.  

I was raised mostly in the Montreal area, also Ontario, South Africa and New Brunswick. A shy, quiet,  unathletic, deep thinker of a child, it was reading books, drawing, writing poetry, cartomancy (telling  fortunes with cards), collecting and reading about beautiful stamps from around the world, walking and  free-style dance that held my interest. I also studied French, German and Spanish however I’ve never  been fluent at any of these. After secretarial college in Quebec I moved to Calgary and worked in the energy industry, and also temporarily lived and worked in the Kootenays of B.C. During my spare time I  stayed in touch with my creative and intuitive side through poetry, divination (cartomancy, palmistry,  tarot, I Ching, Viking runes), taking art classes and artmaking. I‘ve told fortunes for charity fundraising  and on a pay-it-forward basis as I believe that this intuitive gift I received is one that should be freely  shared. 

My creative influence is this ongoing exposure to a melting pot of cultures, people and their art. I  appreciate the diversity, traditions, stories and artforms of people everywhere, and in repeating  patterns, textiles, tilework, wallpaper and nature, especially botanicals. I am an optimistic, peace-loving,  quiet, introspective, and gentle being, and my artwork reflects this along with my need to create peace,  calm and order from chaos. 

After moving to Manitoba, my creative self-expression became my focus. My greatest joy is creating  visual art from the rhythms of line, shape, color, contrast. I lose myself in the creative process, its flow  translating to visual imagery. A multidisciplinary artist at heart, I express myself creatively in a variety of  styles, mediums and subject matter, whatever inspires. My go-to artform is intuitive zen-doodling with  pen and ink. It calms and grounds me. My zenworks reflect this love of pen and ink and a desire to  poetically meld the abstract with imagery created through spontaneous strokes and repeating patterns.  These artworks emerge via a tranquil, meditative process that frees me from anxiety and allows me to  explore and experiment with line, shape and colour. Acrylic painting, Linocut and Gelli-plate  printmaking also call to me. I’ve always loved inspirational quotes and publish mini-posters of the ones  that speak to me using my artwork for the backdrop. 

I now live in Brandon, an hour’s drive south of the scenic Riding Mountain National Park. Both the Park, its wildlife and  the native plant species it supports are one of Manitoba’s key ecosystems. Living here continually  provides me with an appreciation for the bounty that surrounds us, should we choose to stop and look.  The fragility, resilience and diversity of our environment, our communities and people on these  beautiful Treaty 2 lands around and near the Park is a vital and vibrant creative influence on my art  practice.  

I use the results of this influence and my creative self-expression in response to it to encourage respect  and mindfulness of our ecosystems and foster an appreciation of the diversity we benefit from with  what is ours to discover in our communities and our surroundings. I like sharing the stories, symbolism  and healing properties associated with wild edible and medicinal plants and other subject matter through my illustrative work and words that accompany each. 

My recent work reflects on the importance of bees, edible and medicinal plants native to Manitoba and  on the wilds of Manitoba. These works are inspired in part by my own photographs and drawings of  what is on the ground in the Riding Mountain National Park and surrounds. This place where I live is a  diverse and beautiful land and a delicate ecosystem that I am grateful to be able to enjoy and source my  creative inspiration from. 

My current focus and desire is twofold: To share the beauty and bounty that surrounds us through my  creation of thoughtful peaceful artworks. There are visual stories all around us if we tread softly, stop  and look. This includes the healing and nutritional properties of specific plants, the insects that  pollinate them, the life within these natural habitats, and the historic symbolism and legends about  them. I also want to convey how nurturing our natural environment can be. When we take care of our  land and environment, we are taken care of in return. Our mindful cooperation and care in our daily  living on this land is vital for a more sustainable, holistic and healing way of life.  

As David Bowie once said: “I don’t know where I’m going from here but I promise it won’t be boring!”

Identity and My Vast Travels

So far I have visited 20 countries around the world, delighting in the unique language, culture, food, music, dance and art of each. My DNA traces back to more than 16 countries and regions around the world - Scotland, France, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Spain-Portugal, NW Europe-Scandinavia, Eastern Central and South Asia, Angola-Congo, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. I am a non-traditional spiritual being, and the quest to identify who I am and where I belong continues…

Countries I have visited:
Scotland 
Spain 
Greece 
Turkey 
China  
India 
Portugal 
New Zealand 
Italy 
France 
Germany 
Austria 
Switzerland 
Mexico 
USA (Montana, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Florida, Arizona, Nevada)
Indonesia (Bali, Lombok) 
Morocco 
Jamaica 
Cuba 
Dominican Republic

South Africa

My DNA: 

55.9% Scottish, Irish and British 
22.7% French and German 
8.8% NW European and Scandinavian 
5.5% Spanish and Portuguese 
2.6% East Asian 
1.8% Central and South Asian 
1.1% Eastern European and Russian 
0.8% Middle East 
0.6% Angolan and Congolese 
0.2% Unassigned