ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

I am a wife, mother, nature-lover, fitness enthusiast, and licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (lic # 147563) practicing in Camarillo. As a life-long participant in team and individual sports, my weekly fitness routine consists of weight lifting, taekwondo, Zumba, stretching, and running. My creative and social practices include: planning group gatherings with friends and mentors; participating in/supporting the arts community; and viewing and writing about visual art and artists. From 2015 to 2021, I served as an arts writer for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, as a way to generate income while also supporting artists and fulfilling my need for creative expression. In this pursuit I partnered with contemporary artists to create over sixty articles and interviews for publication in print and online. This work allowed me to speak intimately with over fifty artists about their creative processes and artistic evolution.

In my psychotherapy work I offer an integrative approach based on client need and preference: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to explore thoughts; dreamwork; active imagination; Sandplay; art & play therapy; and somatic interventions. I’m also Internal Family Systems (IFS) and trauma-informed. Working as a therapist has deepened my compassion and respect for people on the path toward healing and recovery. I enjoy working with children ages 9 and up, adults, and couples.

While in graduate school, I studied various art therapy modalities including Sandplay therapy (a creative, non-verbal form of therapy wherein clients build symbolic scenes in a sand tray using miniatures). In July of 2024 I completed my training, supervision, and consultation requirements to become a Registered Sandplay Practitioner (RSP), as defined by Sandplay Therapists of America (www.sandplay.org). My exposure to Sandplay as both client and therapist (and my love of dioramas and miniatures) inspires me to create assemblage (picture a 3-D collage) artwork in shadow and cigar boxes (look up Louise Nevelson and Joseph Cornell to view more assemblage work). My assemblage pieces reflect my love of the natural world, vintage trinkets from the past, and the science fiction and fantasy genres. My goal is to slow people down and pique their senses of curiosity and wonder. I also create illuminated jewelry mosaic pieces (made from upcycled vintage pins and earrings) inspired by my mother’s “jewelry tree” I loved so much as a child. I also engage in a consistent nature journaling and art journaling practice that fulfills my need to play, layer, express, and discover. I enjoy creating in solitude, and with others in a group setting.

In this increasingly virtual, fast-paced world, I cherish the old fashioned arts of magic, stop-motion animation, and puppetry, and enjoy creating work based on similar principles: using physical manipulation, illumination, and atmosphere to evoke feelings of enchantment, nostalgia, and childlike wonder.