My
STORY
I am an Irish American artist, born in Bangor, Maine. As a descendent of early colonial Scottish Protestants and Irish Catholics. My mother was an executive chef, lobbyist, educator, and dietitian; my father is an astronomy architect, Pyramid Text scholar, and United States Air Force pilot. Together they developed a passion for art, amassing a collection that became a breeding ground for my unique set of visual and auditory skills. Visual stimulation became my first language. I developed what is called the Matthew Effect and, because I was a non-remediated student and did not get diagnosed with a host of learning disabilities until 48 years of age, these stronger skills took over for my deficit in reading, math, and writing.
To be brought up in a home that fostered an appreciation for creativity and art was a gift from my parents. Without celebrating their passion for art, I would not have recognized the value of pursuing my artistic path nor the absorbent responsibility to honour my authenticity, culture, and community. To actively pursue and develop a visual voice and professional art practice have been my most outstanding life achievements, ones that continue to challenge, stretch, and bring me gratification in ways I could never imagine.
I started my career at 14 in the music business as a recording engineer working for television and radio conglomerates such as CBS and NBC. After graduating from high school, I worked for several recording studios. I owned and operated Southwestern Entertainment Management Company, managing local and regional heavy metal bands. At that time, I was introduced to singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac and became her house engineer. Shortly after, I met, married, and had a daughter with legendary heavy metal artist Ian Hill of Judas Priest.
I continued to study sound engineering, working for a management and music-publishing firm representing artists such as Pat Travers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, and Quiet Riot. In 1987, while living in Spain and England, I started a property management company and an antique emporium. I became interested in city centre management, crisis management, and personal safety issues for women and children. I worked with the Birmingham City Council, Birmingham Police Department-CID, Great Western Arcade, and the UK Home Office as a logistics and security specialist. I was awarded the International Business Woman of the Year.
My journey of working with creative people such as musicians, artists, city planners, and entrepreneurs led me to find my authentic purpose: being an artist. In 2012 I returned to school to earn the degrees that had eluded me for so long and embarked on making the necessary sacrifices to honor my passion for being an artist and developing a full-time art practice. Between 2014 and 2018 I completed numerous degrees, ultimately earning my Bachelors of Fine Arts. My BFA thesis project and exhibition, The Matriarch Series, celebrated the lives of my mother, stepmother, and mother-in-law, all of whom had unexpectedly passed within eight months of each other. The series was an installation comprised of an immersive triptych of ledger stones (240 x 96 x 1 in.) in the style of a white cut-out dress made from birch wood along with a stacked sculpture (36 x 42 x 24 in.) of six, life-size, plaster cast legs with high heel shoes, replicating broken limbs as a metaphor of the matriarchs’ broken bodies.
During my undergraduate studies, I developed a process using acrylic paint as a textile, creating couture fashion taking painting off the walls onto the runway, for which I received the SURFACE: Emerging Artist of New Mexico award. I continue to develop this process and its uses in my visual articulation. Returning my paintings to canvas, I embarked on The Female Gaze Series, a deconstruction of conventional themes of the female gaze informed by theorist Laura Mulvey's research. For centuries, "the male gaze" has dominated popular culture with propaganda perpetuating patriarchal dominance in every aspect of Hollywood Cinema and society. Since Mulvey's publication, others have championed the cause, challenging the creative industry to make space for women to take the lead in shaping female protagonism, further observing that art is self-propaganda...protagonist is propaganda. This series celebrates my
In 2018-2019, I was a studio assistant for Judy Chicago and completed a Bench Jewelry Certificate at Central New Mexico Community College. I moved to Ireland and completed an MFA at the Burren College of Art, Ballyvaugh, County Clare. I developed a cohesive body of work and increased my teaching experience to understand how students learn more deeply. I had opportunities to connect critically with curators and art writers, participate in a meaningful community, and grow my practice's audience(s) and supporters.
My art practice is based at The Studio Barn on my coastal farm in Cill Chiaráin, Connemara, County Galway, focusing on the ecology of the Connemara landscape, researching and developing interdisciplinary art for exhibition and education. In 2023, I founded the Connemara Creative Arts Centre, a creative arts hub supporting the youth and adult community through innovative art programs, offering weekly workshops, creative art clubs, creative arts outreach programmes and an artist residency. The residency programme engages local, national, and international artists, curators, and educators seeking to reconnect with nature and develop or further develop an ecological-based practice.
