Biography
BIOGRAPHY
Growing up in Austria, nature was my place. Eventually I became a physical therapist. For ten years I loved my patients and they loved me back. My family’s move to the USA allowed (forced) me to become a full-time mother. We settled in McPherson, Kansas. My degree in PT got “lost” in the move, while my love for art and gardening led me to a degree in landscape design. By that time we had moved to Seattle, Washington. Life and work as a landscape designer in the Pacific Northwest felt like heaven on earth. And from here we had to move back to McPherson… By then, 45 years old, I fulfilled my lifelong dream and graduated from McPherson College with a BA in studio arts, concentrating in ceramics and painting. Now, in my third life, I combine my experience and my interest in the human psyche with both of my artistic loves by sculpting the human figure from clay and subsequently finishing the sculptures in a painterly manner. After receiving my MFA from Fort Hays State University, I currently teach art at McPherson College.
My work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums throughout the United States in group, solo and juried shows and has received many awards. It is also part of multiple museums, private and corporate collections throughout the USA, Austria and Germany.
Thoughts
As visual artists, we are creative object makers-whether we are process-or result-oriented. Clay, as an artistic medium, offers endless choices for object making. As students of ceramics, our teachers guide us through the maze of possibilities: functional, decorative, architectural, sculptural, realistic or abstract.
In today’s art world, ceramicists are challenged to combine their pure form with various other media, such as painting, photography, video, computer graphics, installation, and recently, the emergence of 3D printing.
As I ventured deeper into the world of ceramics, my interest in psychology lead me to figurative ceramic sculpture. Eventually this curiosity brought on further questions: How could the process of making an object become more than just a challenge for myself? How could my work be societally beneficial and not merely satisfactory for myself? I found the answer by sculpting on site, in a nursing home, with residents as models. There I have discovered a way to put my art to work for society by recognizing, valuing and conveying an individual’s life experiences. This honest and artistic exchange has proven to be both profound and priceless for myself, the model and the viewer.