Enameling is often associated with jewelry or small decorative objects, but I use vitreous glass enamel as a painting medium. My “canvas” is copper, steel, or fine silver. I apply colors using transparent overlays over opaque grounds and build my surface from successive applications of glass with multiple kiln firings for each piece. My current studio is part of a large maker space at the Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA where I have access to many shared shop tools in addition to my own enameling cubicle. My inspiration is from places visited and imagined, and I work freely focusing on colors, textures and organic forms.
Formally educated in painting, I discovered vitreous enamel in a public high school teaching context in 1980, and my painting techniques using vitreous enamel are largely self -taught. I continue to both paint in traditional watercolor and create jewelry. Each medium has unique challenges of mastery, but my expressive style remains consistent.
My satisfying lengthy career as a public school visual arts educator has a significant impact on my own creative art. I attribute some of my creative spontaneity to observing children at work.
I am a member of the international Enamelist Society and have academic degrees from Skidmore College and an MFA degree from Boston University. I have taken many workshops with masters of enameling, metalsmithing, and painting and continue to explore new possibilities.
Education
- Boston University School for the Arts, Master Of Fine Arts with a dual concentration in painting and art education
- Skidmore College, Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts with a painting concentration.
Exhibitions and Galleries
- The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington
- Enamelist Society Juried Exhibit, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
- Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
- NewTV Cable TV Studio Gallery, Newton Massachusetts
- Artitudes, West Newton, MA
- Filomena DeMarco Gallery, Somerville, MA
- Newton, MA Free Library-one person solo exhibit
- Arc Arts juried show Peabody, MA
- Featured Artist Watertown, Ma Public Library
- McGowan Gallery, Concord, NH
- NH League of Craftsman, Concord, NH
- Worcester Center for Crafts
- Montserrat Collage of Art, Beverly, MA
- Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA Metal and Fire: The Children of Vulcan
- New Art Center, Newton, MA
Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario - Boston University Faculty/Alumni Art Exhibit, Fuller Gallery, Boston, MA
- City of Newton, MA Mayor’s Office.
- Newton Cultural Center, Newton, MA
- Mario’s Salon, Somerville, MA
- Somerville Museum, Somerville, Massachusetts
- Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College
- Liberty Gallery Invitational Exhibit, Louisville, Kentucky
- Carnegie Arts Center, Covington, Kentucky
- Sarah Squeri Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio Cultural Arts Center, Enamels Conference Exhibit
- Newton, MA NewTV Cable television studio featured artist
- Brookline Arts Center, Enamels: Facing the Future: juried exhibit
- Arlington Center for the Arts: Art teachers’ juried show
- Concord, MA Art Association
Awards and Recognitions
- Fund for the Arts, Newton, MA – arts lottery grant to create enameled wallpiece.
- Skidmore College Art Fellowship Program (three weeks in the Summer).
- National Gallery, Washington DC, art teachers’ summer fellowship.
