We are all drawn to beauty.
There's something about it that we find healing and restorative.
As an artist, I am an unabashed lover of beauty.
And yet like many people, there is also a part of me that is seeking to make sense of life's challenges and difficulties.
Historically, art has been a way for human beings to take what can be challenging and turn it into a thing of beauty.
That is why I adore harrowing, triumphant tales that are full of hope and courage in the face of difficulty.
Whether my subject is a flower that is beautiful today and fades tomorrow, the quiet dignity of the human form, or the fierce majesty of the seven seas, I am approaching my art as a way to celebrate the beauty of hope in the face of life's challenges.
My desire for my viewers and collectors is that my art would spark something in you and inspire you to savor and celebrate the beauty of the life you've been given.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As a tiny child, I fell in love with drawing before I knew how to write or spell.
From an early age, I had an affinity for narrative, and used to create characters and stories as I drew. Ever since I can remember, my work has been ethereal and dream-like.
As I create, I feel as though I am telling visual stories about this world and another beyond it. Whether my subject is a face, a figure, a flower, or a landscape, there is always a sense of poetic realism in my work that speaks to the invisible realm behind what we see with our eyes.
My interest in exploring a variety of subject matter is similar to a director who explores various genres of film. Each body of work is like a movie, and each painting a frame or a scene to explore narratives that I find captivating.
BIO
As a native Ohioan, I've spent my life living in the Midwest, but have traveled widely. I had family who lived in Spain for several decades, and for the last 20+ years I have spent a good deal of time in Europe, including study abroad in Mallorca and Barcelona. I have also exhibited my art in Scotland.
In the 1990s, I attended Northern Kentucky University, where I received my BFA, and studied Painting, Printmaking, and Philosophy and was an Honors student.
My attraction to luminous lights and the velvety chiarascuro of intaglio printmaking led me to further study at Miami University, where I received my MFA in 2003.
I also studied Printmaking abroad at the Joan Miro Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Always hungry to learn, I continue to study painting and drawing and have taken workshops and classes with artists such as Shane Wolf, Patrick Devonas and Dorian Iten. My most recent learning experience was studying classical atelier drawing at Barcelona Academy of Art in Spain.
From 2002-2014, I taught a variety of college level art courses at Miami University, Mount Saint Joseph University and Thomas More College. I have also worked with teens to create public art projects with ArtWorks Cincinnati. In 2014, I left my job as a full time professor to further pursue my art career.
My painting and printmaking has been exhibited throughout Greater Cincinnati, United States and Europe. My work has been collected by many private clients in the Midwest region. I have work on permanent display at the Museum of Spiritual Art in Franklin, Ohio; and my printmaking is part of the works on paper collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the University of Dallas, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
I currently live in Cincinnati, Ohio with my husband, artist Evan Hildebrandt.