B I O
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| B I O |
| b. 1974 I was born in Alaska and raised in Mukilteo, WA, a quaint town eventually enveloped by suburbia. In 1999, after five majors and four universities, I earned my BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Between then and now I’ve been an executive assistant, an outreach director of an environmental organization, a bartender at the local ski hill, and a medical esthetician turned laser expert. There was also a period of time that I thought I wanted to be an architect, so I spent a summer taking a studio course at Columbia. Missoula, MT kept me in its grips until two years ago when we moved to the Twin Cities. Just after graduating from college I met my husband playing in an ultimate Frisbee tournament in Calgary. His Seattle team needed another woman and half my Montana team wasn’t allowed over the border, so I jumped ship. Four months later, lost on a late night adventure to some hot springs in Idaho, we narrowly missed hitting a hefty buck and fortuitously but inadvertently got engaged. A northern lights sighting solidified the night as nothing short of epic. We even got matching tramp stamp tats to commemorate the day. This is a metaphor for my life*…No, but seriously, like the other endeavors and experiences in my life I came to photography in a circuitous way. Six months into my self-prescribed photography education I was sitting across from David Alan Harvey, it was the first day of his Loft Workshop. Harvey sat me down and, as he intended, “got into my head”. I am relatively transparent and in combination with David’s probing and insistence I found myself headed down a path—my path, with sharp curves, steep grades, potholes and all—with new clarity and consciousness. The project JoJo was born out of that experience. Costa Manos and Debbie Flemming Caffery are two other photographers I have taken workshops with in the past year, both of whom have had a seminal impact on my photography. When not in New York City or on an adventure in the RV, I am enjoying home in the Saint Louis Park, MN with my husband, John, and dog, Ella. And yes, we like Minnesota, but we really miss the mountains. *More accurately, rather than being a metaphor for my life, the story of our engagement poignantly illustrates my life's trajectory. |