I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a mental health care professional and a housewife who would later become a mental health care professional. 

One of my first artistic impulses was to use as many colors as possible to describe how much I loved my mother.

Clay (and botanical motifs) made an early appearance, as seen in this cir. First Grade piece. I recall feeling frustrated that the teacher didn't have a brush small enough to paint the flowers, so I used a toothpick instead. I consider this piece a success despite having succumbed to the 1970s trend of making ashtrays even when there were no smokers in the house.

Early childhood memories include admiring the lilac hedge that bloomed each spring in our back yard, and being dragged through the neighborhood on the end of a leash by our huge family dog (Sam) after being permitted, for unknown reasons, to walk him by myself when I was five.

My affinity for the natural world took root when our family moved to a rural area of Albuquerque, where we had a big garden, horses, dogs, cats, a goat, chickens, and a number of wild things inhabiting the ditches and alfalfa fields. 

There's nothing like farm life to usher in an early awareness of the cycle of life and death. We witnessed the deaths of many, including my father. 

When I was in sixth grade, I moved with my mother and three siblings to downtown Albuquerque. My formative years were defined by Catholic education, the study of classical piano, and a desire to look like Marsha Brady.

Higher education began at a tiny college in a tiny West Virginia town, where I discovered that I was not actually a very good musician, I was too shy to perform, and I would never eat barbecued squirrel. After three tortured semesters, I transferred to the University of the Pacific and graduated with a more economically promising major: English (Music minor).

My formal training in the arts began with a Drawing class during my senior year at UOP, detoured through the University of New Mexico, and concluded with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Eventually, the dramatic skies and colors of the high desert, good friends, family, and my future daughter beckoned me back to New Mexico.

I took my first clay class at a community studio in 1998, shortly after the birth of my beautiful daughter, Isabella.

Six months later, I sold my first wobbly vase for $60 at a local gallery. (Sorry to whomever bought it, I thought it was good at the time.) Exhibitions & more galleries followed.

In 2001, one of my lidded vases sold at a juried exhibition of funerary art, and thus began my journey alongside the bereaved.

In 2009, my funerary work expanded to include biodegradable urns for ocean burial. My first design was a paper turtle based on its ceramic predecessors.

Today, with 20 years' experience in ceramics, countless successes and failures in the studio, and a somewhat obsessive quest to develop new designs, I am happy to make a living doing what I love.

My biodegradable urns are sold around the world and my ceramic work is collected nationally. I feel honored to help families discover or create urns that best celebrate the lives of their beloved family members and pets.

My studio is located next to my home in downtown Albuquerque, one block west of my mother, for whom there will never be enough colors to describe the extent of my love.