Although my paintings have included landscapes, florals and portraits, it has been life studies that have called to me most strongly. Working in watercolour, ink, acrylic, or mixed media, my goal has been to capture the sense of a moment or an individual, an expression or a personality. I bore easily, so am continually experimenting with and changing between materials and media, but I remain inspired and challenged by the human figure.

I've worked in health care for over sixteen years, and painting has become a necessary release from the strains and stresses of professional life. I have appreciated the opportunity to work in facilities that have acknowledged the symbiotic relationship between art and healing—being able to walk by works of art everyday in the hallways is an experience that I wish more people could share.

I've taken classes off and on since high school, through the Edmonton Art Gallery, U of A Faculty of Extension, Grant MacEwan, City Arts Centre, Metro College, SuttonArt, and the Artra Art School. I have attended extended format workshops with Harold Demont Olsen of Salt Lake City, Utah, and with Louise Lechance Legault, from Quebec. Every one of my instructors taught me something, but within it all I think that I remained true to my own journey. Now I work independently out of my studio at Harcourt House, critiqued by guests of the EAC, and in a group facilitated by Eileen Raucher-Sutton.

My first real figure drawings were derived from my reading material. At thirteen, I was a fan of Conan the Barbarian novels, and my sketchbooks were full of beefy, hunky gladiator-types, drawn from the covers of paperbacks. I'd like to think that my taste in literature has since improved, while my artistic inspiration has broadened to encompass a wide range of body types, ethnicities, ages and experiences. I am endlessly fascinated by people, whether I'm sketching quick gestures at summer festivals or in cafes, painting at a formal model session, or in just watching and mentally planning the depiction of passerby on the street. My favorite models are those who appear to have lived in their bodies: they are individuals marked by their age and experiences, not perfect, not conventionally beautiful (except as individuals, unique beings who share themselves with me).

Lately I've been intrigued by the idea of self perception and self image, juxtaposed against outward appearance and society's view of physical beauty—evolving as it is, it remains relatively narrow as it applies to women, and increasingly structured as applied to male standards. Can the view of others teach us to accept ourselves? In this, can the work reward the subject, as well as the viewer? In a quotation from a recent women's magazine, a woman with a negative self-image declared: "By posing nude, I too could become a work of art". I believe that we all are, and want to express my view of beauty as individuality.

visit my web site: http://members.shaw.ca/LifeInk

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