I began sculpting stone rather serendipitously...
Before I started stone carving, my passion was rock climbing. When I was climbing, I noticed that I had a special relationship to stone. At the end of a climb, I would sit atop the huge rock to watch the sunset, and the stones expressed love for me.
My ability to climb was restricted when I became pregnant with my daughter. Craving a creative outlet, I signed up for a stone carving class at Georgia Tech where my husband was a student. In the carving class, I fell in love with stone carving and asked my teacher, Barbara Rhinegrover if she would accept me as a personal student. I apprenticed with Barbara for 13 months, and carved stone from that point on.
As I created more sculptures, Barbara encouraged me to show my work. At my first exhibition, I won best of show. The next show yielded a sale to the city of Decatur, Georgia for public exhibit in the Mayors office. Fueled by the sudden success, I took classes with renowned sculptor, Bob Lockhart, and started attending the annual Stone Symposium in Indiana.
In 1992, I moved to Norris Tennessee with my family and created my home studio. I was commissioned by the City of Norris to create a public sculpture commemorating the town's 50th anniversary, which stands in our town square.
I accepted an apprentice in 1999, and we introduced stone sculpting to the Artist in Residence program at Jefferson Middle School. That lead to our ongoing participation there for six years, and collaboration on weeklong workshops through out the region and then on the national level.
Though out this time, my unique relationship to stone expanded. I realized that the stones could provide me with answers to my questions about life.
On a trip to New Mexico, sitting overlooking a canyon near Taos, I asked a new question, “Are you stones each individuals or are you all one?” The answer came through a series of visions that spoke of the elemental Spirit of Stone.
My understanding of the Spirit of Stone informs my unique teaching approach and my personal creative process.
Encouraged by my awareness of the Spirit of Stone, I sought out more. That started a long quest with several amazing teachers including Dr. Mark Dunn N.D, Hank Wesselman PhD, Jill Kuykendall, Sheri Treadwell, and Melanie McGhee LCSW.
My artwork is inspired by this journey and my relationship with stone. I began to incorporate the intuitive understanding of stone into my classes to encourage others to learn and connect to this form of wisdom. These are the classes that I present now—technical information about stone sculpting paired with the vision to interact with the Spirit of All Things.
I have taught classes in Tennessee, California, and many other beautiful places in between.