About me

Hello! I am a portrait artist living in Minneapolis Minnesota.

I’ve been married 20 years to a baseball-loving, people-loving, curious-about-the world, Iowan engineer.
We have four teenagers and two Boston terriers. I love gardening, all kinds of music, reading, movies that say something beautiful and true, old houses, making and building things, walking, and trees. I am an ardent, intentional Christian. I believe in putting down deep roots somewhere and working quietly and steadily to see the people around you.

My favorite thing about drawing and painting is taking a slow, meditative effort to see whatever you are looking at more carefully and truly. So I especially love giving this time to another human. Once in my book-laden twenties when reading some philosophy or theology book, I came across the word “haeccity” which is essentially the “this-ness” of a thing – what makes a thing that particular thing. This delighted me then, and still does. Whether it’s meeting a new person in a chance conversation at the store, or dating the person you end up marrying, or birthing a child and connecting eyes with him the first time. I love the unfolding work of discovering who that person is. What makes that person THAT person.

 I think there’s a zillion ways to do this sometimes in a passing encounter, and sometimes over long days and years in a marriage, parent-child, sibling, friendship kind of way. One way of celebrating that endeavor is to display a photo or painting of a person in your home. An image that captures a point in time that reminds you of your relationship, reminds you of something true about them. That’s what I’d like to do when making someone a small, intimate painting.  I want to celebrate the sacredness of the individual and the relationships between individuals.

So if you’d like to use me to be part of that kind of celebration and honoring, let me know. I would be grateful to be a part of that!

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