I grew up in the Appalachian "Bible Belt" of East Tennessee in the southern United States, listening to banjo music and gospel lyrics as well as the Beatles. Despite having traveled widely and lived in other places, I am (as so many Southerners claim to be) permanently "South haunted."

I returned to making art full time in 2011, following a career as a teacher, researcher, and consultant and after raising two sons. I’m convinced the delay enriched rather than impeded my growth as an artist. I am primarily a visual artist, but my images keep spilling over into words about places I know and places I dream about.

My collages, prints, and wooden figures are visual narratives, each one composed of cut-paper shapes pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. I begin by drawing caricatures and sometimes writing stories about them as an aid to developing complex works. My characters range from the merely eccentric to the downright supernatural. While their stories are occasionally disturbing, they exude dark humor in bright colors derived from Appalachian folklore, Southern literature (particularly that of Flannery O’Connor), the art of Romare Bearden, and oddities of everyday life. Rarely do they spell everything out. My aim is to entice with enigma---the pleasurable sense of a mystery embedded in the image. Faced with the intricacies of cut-paper collage, the viewer is encouraged to slow down and look closely.