Biography


  I am an artist working in photography and sculpture. I began my connection with the art world early, as I am related to the sculptor Ruth Azawa. I spent many years participating in Azawa’s various workshops for children. As a teenager, I won two student art grants and attended summer classes at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, studying with master photographer Steve Harper. 

  I earned a BFA from San Francisco State University under the tutelage of Jack Welpott and Robin Lasser. After college, I photographed the vibrant San Francisco rock 'n' roll scene for multiple record labels.  At the same time, I was an intern at Show ‘n Tell Gallery and spent many hours assisting conceptual artist David Ireland with his Capp Street project. I also co-founded the San Francisco Society of Female Photographers, which hosted group exhibitions and gave female photographers a safe platform to shoot night photography in the city. 

  In 1999 I moved to Los Angeles, where I completed two important bodies of work: The Mask Series and Toyland. In both, I recorded the not so subtle changes in social norms between Northern and Southern California. Throughout the 2010's, I concentrated on transforming the two-dimensional surfaces of my photographs by puncturing, weaving, stitching, and embroidering onto them. From experiments in portraying shadows on paper constructions and photographing detritus in plaster, to building digital images incorporating text and woven portraits. My artwork began to shift toward a more textural content, e.g. Fleeting Perspectives: A Paper Ballet  and Home as Hat - Flora as Fashion. 

  Completely exhausted from the overstimulation and heavy bombardment of imagery in our social media-obsessed world, I turned to constructing abstract wooden reliefs in 2020. Working with physical space, shadow, depth, and light, the new medium of wood has given me the freedom to explore relationships between patterns and fluctuating tones. I hope my art gives viewers a respite from the pounding visual throngs of mass media representation through the joy of watching the interaction of light and shadow. 

Portrait of the artist by Andre Smits for his project "Artists in the World"



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