I was raised by an artist mother and an engineer father, the oldest of five children.  My mother taught me to draw; somewhere, there is a big, beautiful book about Michelangelo with exquisite photographs of his work.  The frontispiece bears one of my first drawings in my toddler years.  If you have the book, I would love to have it back.  It was my mother’s, and taught us both a lot.

 

My primary media are colored pencil and acrylic, with some recent forays into watercolor.  Favorite subjects come from the natural world, particularly trees.  More recent works include animals, especially as illustrations; for more on these, click on over to my Book and Illustration pages.

 

I grew up reading and drawing for hours every day, in love with both art and books.  I obtained my BA in English Literature many years ago, and wrote manuscripts over the years, but never submitted them for publication at the time.  Having put my publishing dream on the back burner for so long, I decided to obtain my MA in Psychology, becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Oregon.  I have worked with hundreds of clients of all ages, sharing their experiences of love, loss, change, and healing while continuing to learn from my own journey and its miracles and tragedies.  In the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was somehow adopted by the character of Flowerfox, who first showed up in a painting I did during that time.  I realized that Flowerfox had a lot of stories to tell, and the result is the book you see here.

 

The Adventures of Flowerfox is a book about the universal experiences we all go through: exploration, wonderment, friendship, love, losing loved ones, learning to live with grief—and finding a way forward.  It is a book for all readers 4th grade level up.  The story is timeless, with characters any reader will relate to and bond with.  The journey Flowerfox takes has twists and surprises even I didn’t know were coming, much like life.