My work explores how the human mind absorbs the chaos of the world and transforms it into a search for calm. I’m inspired by the contrast between today’s constant noise and the quiet strength found in our shared history.

In my collections, I look to ancient tablets, poets, visionaries and music—guiding voices that help us make sense of life’s history and our current overwhelming pace. These pieces are not only about struggle; they are about resilience and the will to keep going. I hope they offer viewers a moment of stillness in a busy, restless time.

Each wooden panel begins as a blank slate, a place where I can let go of modern anxieties and return to something simple and clear. I’m drawn to encaustic; an ancient medium made of beeswax and pigment. Working with it slows me down and connects me to the long line of people who once used stone and wax tablets to record both everyday moments and deep truths.

Just as those early tablets echo the devices we hold today, my work carries forward the timeless human need to leave a mark, to make meaning, and to tell our stories.

My primary medium is Encaustic. I fell in love with this medium for its versatility, transparency and depth. Encaustic is beeswax and damar resin (a tree sap from Asia). The bees wax and resin is heated to a molten state. When it is liquified, pigment is added for color. A layer of wax is applied to a substrate such as a wooden panel using an artist brush or tool. Each layer of wax is heated and fused together using fire from a torch, or heat gun. Encaustic can be carved into, embedded with materials and used with other mediums such as oil, ink or natural fiber. I use a pyrography (wood burning) technique and use wax instead of wood to “burn into” the wax with language or text. Using Encaustic allows me to explore creative ways to use this medium not only in composition of abstract works of art but also using materials to create pottery like structures or sculptures.

I create art, from my art studio, in Wabasha, Minnesota.