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I was
born in Ithaca, New York and grew up in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. I received my B.A. in Studio Art from the
University of Iowa where I studied textiles and
painting. I continued my work in these areas at the
California College of the Arts earning an M.F.A. and
went on to complete a post master’s certificate in Art
Therapy from the University of California at Berkeley.
Married, with two grown children, I now live in Davis,
California where I work as an artist and art therapist.
After
spending many years as a studio artist, I began to teach
workshops on the mandala (the word means circle
in Sanskrit and refers to art done in a circle form).
I’d been practicing meditation for many years and this
technique appeared to combine the best qualities of both
art and meditation. People who took the classes found
they were more relaxed, more observant, and were able to
apply what they learned from drawing the mandalas to
their own lives. I was excited by these results and made
the decision to go back for a post master’s program in
art therapy at UC Berkeley. I sought further training
because I realized that to enter into the field of
personal transformation was also to enter the very
delicate world of an individual’s psyche: my many years
of intuitive and meditative practices needed to be
coupled with a clinical knowledge of psychology. Once
inside the UC Berkeley program, I found myself knee deep
in an entirely new world. Words like “affect” and
“disorder,” “proximal-distal” and “cephalo-caudal”
colored my days. After three years of school I needed to
locate an internship. By sheer coincidence, I happened
to receive a flyer about an art therapist doing a
ceramic workshop. It noted that she worked at UC Davis
Children’s Hospital in Sacramento and I decided to go
and meet with her. At the very least, I would be able to
write a paper about my experience. She took me around
the Pediatric floor, and with great pride, she showed me
the rolling wooden art cart she used to carry art
supplies to patients. I took a good look at this art
cart. I had that feeling of “deja-vu”--the sense that in
some way, this cart felt very familiar to me. On that
day, I asked Johanna Russell, the art therapist, if I
could become her intern. Johanna had never had an intern
before, but she was open to the idea. My work in the
world of pediatrics began at that moment and continues
to this day on the same pediatrics ward.
The
idea for The Second Story Studio workshops
flowed out of my work with the children at the hospital.
My work with children there is brief, by virtue of the
short stays, intense, because of the nature of their
illnesses and, at times, filled with grief when a death
occurs. I needed some balance in my life. I decided to
offer workshops that combined my personal enthusiasm for
the creative process, my zeal for recycling and my
fascination with using art as a tool for insight and
intuition. The Second Story Studio
workshops provide balance in my life and function as a
seedbed where new artistic ideas sprout and are
cultivated with care and attention.
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