California Collages

As an artist I am usually drawn to the themes of place, home, and environment. I can't go anywhere without subconsciously studying the forms, proportions, angles, and color relationships of my surroundings. I'm currently living in the green, hilly, and rural landscape of New Hampshire, but prior to this I lived for three years in Huntington Beach, California. I lived a mile from the beach in a neighborhood packed with apartment buildings and tall, skinny homes 10 feet apart from each other. I created this series of watercolor collages during that time to illustrate the scenes I saw daily and constantly studied in my mind.

Sego Lilies

I just finished a watercolor that will be used as the advertising image for the International Rett Syndrome Foundation conference this summer. The conference will be held in Midway, Utah and the theme of the event is "This is the Place for Hope". The conference logo will be added across the sky and I think it should look really great.

I was commissioned to paint something referencing Utah and illustrating the theme of hope, so I ended up going with the imagery of sego lilies. Sego lillies, the Utah state flower, were a source of hope for the early settlers in Utah when their crops were destroyed by a plague of crickets and they were able to eat the soft roots the sego lilies. Hopefully the Rett families who attend this IRSF conference will feel renewed hope from the information and support they receive at this event.