I am a Canadian artist from Nova Scotia. I studied art history at Mt. Allison University, and Fine Arts at the University of Kelowna and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. I am also an avid musician and outdoor enthusiast. I grew up in the 70s and 80s getting involved in community music, theatre, and counter culture. Most of my youth was spent on the coastline or woods, often on my own. I wanted to paint and draw but I was too shy to even try. I studied in France while I was in high school where I was greatly affected by the architecture mainly the Ecole de Nancy where I lived. It wasn’t until I was living on the land as a tree planter in northern BC (after my BA) that I got the courage to put pencil to paper. My marks were tentative but I fell in love. On a summer day while hitchhiking I was picked up by a couple on their way to art school in Kelowna BC. I drove with them for 5 hours and since I had no plans, I asked if I could go with them. The rest is my own art history. My love of art and making art has never wavered, although I have often struggled with confidence.

When I was in my mid 30s I began to study shamanism as a way to help me understand the undercurrents of experiences I was having while making art. I felt like there was much more going on in my studio than just putting paint on canvas. Art is mysterious that way. So I began another life long adventure into the realms of shamanism and spirit. I spent four years travelling to study under Dr Michael Harner at the Centre of Noetic Sciences in California and another decade studying under master shamanic practitioners in the US.  More recently as I age, my interest in my health and physicality has led me to study and become and instructor in Essentrics, a Canadian based company created by Miranda Esmond White a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada. I have always been active and adventurous and am a certified yoga teacher with the Himalayan Institute, but from so many years of injuries, neglect in certain areas and wear and tear in others, and the fact that I have a naturally tight body, I just didn’t feel free. Now I do. Or at least I’m on the road to freedom! Our culture isn’t healthy, our planet isn’t healthy. However in both humans and in the broader sense, the earth, there is an underlying basis of pure and natural health. And it doesn’t take much to get back there. I believe it comes down to paying attention and listening and getting out of conditioned default ways of being.