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Over the years I have taken classes in pencil and charcoal drawing, photography, and oil painting, searching for the medium which best suited me and allowed me to express my creativity. But it wasn't until 1995 when I was introduced to wheel thrown pottery that I blossomed into a practicing artist. Soon I was forming faces on porcelain mugs and studying figurative sculpture, winning WV Professional Development Grants and several awards along the way. Throughout my career as a marketing professional I have always written ad copy, brochures, sales tools, newsletters, business communications, grant proposals, and press releases. In 2001, I took the writing class that launched my writing career now marked with an award-winning debut novel - Father's Troubles, pieces in two anthologies, articles in the Huntington Quarterly Magazine, St. Mary's Today, MetroValley Magazine, the Marshall Magazine, an essay in Appalachian Heritage Magazine and several pieces in the West Virginia Encyclopedia. What inspires me both as a visual artist and as an author is the human condition in all its misery and glory. I write and sculpt to understand myself and others, to feel or express an emotion, to have a vicarious experience, to be someone or in someplace that I am not. I strive to capture the inner turmoil or peace that is reflected on faces or revealed in stories. It is the "why" behind the actions we take, the choices we make and the changes that are wrought in each of us that I seek to capture and acknowledge. My current body of work of "narrative sculpture" combines both sculpture and writing; many pieces have an essay as an integral part of the work. I take every opportunity to combine these forms and often use my art to make social commentary on issues of importance to me. In all my creative expressions, if I can impart that emotion, that experience, that understanding to one other person, I will have met my artistic goals.
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