I have always loved the ocean, ancient history, travelling and creating. For as long as I can remember I have been making artwork, whether it be photography, film, sculpture or painting, forever compelled to miniaturize it and wear it. So jewelry it is!
I am originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but currently live in Sarasota Florida. I have been a professional jewelry artist for over twenty years and exhibit my jewelry at the nations top fine art festivals.
Educated in Minnesota at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, I graduated with a B.F.A in Fine Arts and Photography in 1991. Prior to college I had been a professional actress at the Children's Theatre Company, where I also graduated from high school, and had been a member of the acting company. I also appeared in T.V. commercials, modeled, recorded numerous voice-overs, and acted in a number of local professional theatre companies in Minneapolis. While I loved theatre and acting but I had other interests yet to explore.
Having grown up watching Jacques Cousteau, I had always wanted to study the ocean and marine life. During college I began studying inter-species communication and behavioral psychology of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) at the University of Hawaii, and began training dolphins at Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory. I became a research assistant and conducted several studies in linguistics and had the opportunity to work with many prominent scientists. Eventually, I had planned on merging my interests into documentary film making and had some experience with National Geographic while in Hawaii. However, I began to supplement my meager stipend with jewelry I had been making, and I was gradually feeling much more like an artist that a scientist.
I returned to Minnesota and began working in the feature film industry, as a film editor, set painter, casting coordinator and a range of other positions on films such as Walt Disney's Mighty Ducks, Castle Rock's Little Big League, and the Cohen Brothers' Fargo.
In the summers I would exhibit and sell my jewelry at local art festivals, eventually turning it into a full-time career.
My jewelry inspiration stems from a passion for archeology, ancient cultures, mythology and nature, especially the ocean, my love of mosaics took me to Ravenna, Italy in 2019, where I learned the nearly lost art of micro mosaics. It is my obsession and a constant source of inspiration and learning!
I am originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but currently live in Sarasota Florida. I have been a professional jewelry artist for over twenty years and exhibit my jewelry at the nations top fine art festivals.
Educated in Minnesota at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, I graduated with a B.F.A in Fine Arts and Photography in 1991. Prior to college I had been a professional actress at the Children's Theatre Company, where I also graduated from high school, and had been a member of the acting company. I also appeared in T.V. commercials, modeled, recorded numerous voice-overs, and acted in a number of local professional theatre companies in Minneapolis. While I loved theatre and acting but I had other interests yet to explore.
Having grown up watching Jacques Cousteau, I had always wanted to study the ocean and marine life. During college I began studying inter-species communication and behavioral psychology of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) at the University of Hawaii, and began training dolphins at Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory. I became a research assistant and conducted several studies in linguistics and had the opportunity to work with many prominent scientists. Eventually, I had planned on merging my interests into documentary film making and had some experience with National Geographic while in Hawaii. However, I began to supplement my meager stipend with jewelry I had been making, and I was gradually feeling much more like an artist that a scientist.
I returned to Minnesota and began working in the feature film industry, as a film editor, set painter, casting coordinator and a range of other positions on films such as Walt Disney's Mighty Ducks, Castle Rock's Little Big League, and the Cohen Brothers' Fargo.
In the summers I would exhibit and sell my jewelry at local art festivals, eventually turning it into a full-time career.
My jewelry inspiration stems from a passion for archeology, ancient cultures, mythology and nature, especially the ocean, my love of mosaics took me to Ravenna, Italy in 2019, where I learned the nearly lost art of micro mosaics. It is my obsession and a constant source of inspiration and learning!