Following the path really began in the spring of my senior year in college, when I was invited to become part of the legendary Storefront Theater in Portland. Awestruck, I ran away to join the theater and spent a decade training and collaborating with an inspiring group of actors, designers, artists, playwrights, musicians and political activists. Simultaneously working in touring companies and musical ensembles, I was encouraged to develop skills as a performer, collaborator, vocalist, designer, and storyteller.

Over the next decade I created costumes for theater and commercial use, taught playmaking classes for kids, and developed an improvisational singing practice which evolved, through time, into a group improv form called Voiceweaving.

Here’s a short and sweet vocal improvisation.

In 1990 I co-founded the “Dreams Well Studio,” a performance lab for the development of original theater and also worked as an exhibit and parade float designer and sculptor at Studio Concepts, a former float builder for the Portland Rose Festival and Pasadena Rose Parades.

After a growth-filled decade, I wanted to engage more personally with folks in my community. And at the time, in 2003, arts education in the Portland Public Schools was almost nonexistent. Combining my interests in the environment and the arts, I co-founded Earth Arts NW, an eco-arts education program for grades K-12 kids. 

Now on permanent hiatus, Earth Arts NW served thousands of children for over a decade, informally publishing 100+ classroom-created stories focused on bioregional species and habitats, Pacific NW history, and folk tales collaboratively invented by kids.

I fell in love with these kid-inspired stories and discovered the professional world of KidLit publication in 2005 through the SCBWI: the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, now an international organization.

My focus on creating environmentally inspired stories and activities continues today through a publication project for children – Storieseed – an imprint of Dreaming Earth Press. As a graphic artist and illustrator, I collaborate with artists, authors, and KitLit creators to publish books of meaning, beauty, and wonder.