In my Oklahoma childhood, my early artistic focus was on music, first piano then clarinet in the band.  I continued that into the University of Oklahoma, where I graduated with a BA in psychology and anthropology.  I had worked in the OU library as a student and eventually went on to get a Master's degree there in Library Science.

 

I began my career as a librarian at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where I also started creating in stained glass. In five years, I moved on to the Texas A&M University library; my new art focus became the collecting and creating of stereoscopic views.  I finally moved up to the library at the University of California, Riverside. At that time, I joined an online group for carving rubber stamps and creating themed, printed group works.  I also became the Film Selector for the Riverside International Film Festival, watching hundreds of independent films each year to build our annual program

 

I grew up enjoying arts and crafts, modeling clay, and Girl Scout projects, and I studied watercolors, oils, and acrylics under Donna Post. But my first encounter with my current primary medium, Lego bricks, came as a tiny Santa and chimney kit set gift from a coworker circa 1995. 

 

I still enjoy Lego sets, but my greatest fulfillment comes from my own creations. These are most often clocks and usually have a theme based in puns or fairy tales.  For example, “Snow White's Bath Time” features a Barbie Snow White in her Lego bathroom and bathtub, being scrubbed by seven diligent dwarfs.  I have also created large Lego sculptures such as a 18-inch Santa Claus and a 2- foot monarch butterfly, and have been commissioned for sculptures including a full-sized tiger head and a T-rex head.  My first large work of 2022 was an original, 18-inch Lego Birkebeiner, displayed with a diorama of the American Birkebeiner 2022.

 

The clock which represents me here is entitled “Greenpeace and Carrots.”  It started with a handful of Lego carrots, which brought to mind green peas, which then segued into Greenpeace. It was only upon completion that I recalled that the peace sign came from the “Ban the Bomb” movement, and the carrots turned into tiny bombs. It also echoes the style of one of my favorite artists, Rene Magritte.