Artist Statement Intrigued by man-made facsimiles of natural environments such as the compressed interiors of botanical gardens, I strive to capture the interplay between reality and artificiality. Colorfully gestural acrylic paintings appear to be drawn from the exotic locales of the American Southwest or the Caribbean. They are in fact compositions from manmade urban greenhouses, which are revealed through the precise placement of sculptural succulents or panes of reflective glass. The theme of nature’s reconquest can be seen in the scale and weighty personification of plant life, as well as the decaying detritus of human industry. From the artist and critic Helen Hummel, “At first her work will appear chaotic and formless, but then it will burst into form and space in a most remarkable way.” My creative processes are a contemporary trompe l’oil, engaging the viewer to closely examine the depicted visual reality. I have been a painter and Urban Sketcher for over 40 years and have earned a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University in Boston. I have had my first one-person show at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and went on to exhibit in juried shows throughout the United States. In Canada, I was an invited guest artist of the Conseil des Arts du Canada at the Symposium of Baie St. Paul. I have been an artist in residence at the Virginia Center for the Arts and the Edna St. Vincent Millay artist’s colony. Works are in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and in private collections in several countries.