I was born in Quebec and grew up in an art-rich environment in the Laurentians and Montreal. At 22, I moved to British Columbia’s West Coast to go to graduate school and stayed on.
For more than 25 years I’ve been pursuing formal art studies to add to a lifetime of informal study. I also hold a BA and MA.
Before turning to a full-time art practice, I was a professional writer and editor, in effect working with language the way I now work with visual art forms: as a way to see, experience and better understand the world and my own small part in it. In many studio projects, I merge the two pursuits, devising ways to turn quoted passages—poetic, scientific, philosophic, salty—into 2D and 3D visual form.
I work from my light-filled home studio near the ocean and mountains in the Cowichan Valley, outside Victoria, British Columbia.
Select Education and Skills Development
Credit courses: Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria BC (since 2005): abstract colour and form, art history, collage and composition, colour theory, design principles, series development, painting (landscape, figure, still life, portrait, abstraction)
Workshops, mentorships, art residencies/retreats, etc:
- Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts (since 2003): contemporary and abstract art concepts, 3D assemblage/sculpture, series development, hot glass sandcasting
- Vancouver Island Art Workshops (since 2006): abstract mixed media, abstract painting, abstract design, abstract design masterclass
- Collaborative Artist’s Mentorship Program (CAMP), Victoria BC (Connie Michele Morey)
- Group coaching program, The Artist’s Mindset (Cheryl Taves, Insight Creative)
- Joya arte + ecologia Artist in Residence, Almeria, Spain, June 2024
- Isla Mujeres, Mexico, self-directed group art retreat, 2020 and 2023
- Photojournalism course, Western Academy of Photography, Victoria BC (Ted Grant)
- MA, University of Victoria, Victoria BC; BA (Honours), Concordia University, Montreal QC
Memberships Current and Past
- Art Critique Program with contemporary artist Sara Robichaud
- co-LAB-orate Art Crit group, Victoria BC
- Cowichan Valley Arts Council
- Victoria Arts Council
- Zebra Arts Collective, Victoria BC
Solo Exhibitions
- 2022: Room for Not Knowing, Chapel Gallery, Victoria BC
- 2023: Caustic Optimism, Victoria Arts Council satellite venue, Oak Bay Public Library, Victoria BC (juried)
Collaborative Group Exhibitions
- 2023: Trifolia, three-person show, Gage Gallery, Victoria BC
- 2022: 6 x 6 x 6, co-LAB-orate group show, Errant artSpace, Victoria BC
- 2021: Seen | Together, exhibition with Louise Oborne, Errant artSpace, Victoria BC
- 2021: Interlude, five-member group show, Errant artSpace, Victoria BC
- 2019: In Light of Winter, Zebra Art Collective group show, Chapel Gallery, Victoria BC
Select Additional Group Exhibitions
- 2025: Light & Shadow: 11th Annual International InFocus Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, Edmonton AB (juried)
- 2024: Illuminate, Arts Council of Ladysmith & District show, Ladysmith BC (juried)
- 2023–2024: Black and White: EJ Hughes Gallery, Duncan BC (juried)
- 2023: December Members Show, Victoria Arts Council, VAC Gallery, Victoria BC
- 2023: Look Again: Photographic Art Show, ArtPod Gallery, Metchosin BC (juried)
- 2023: 53rd Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show, Portals Gallery, Duncan BC
- 2022: Ekphrasis, ArtPod Gallery, Metchosin BC (juried)
- 2022: 52nd Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show, Portals Gallery, Duncan BC
- 2021: 35th Sooke Fine Arts Show, Sooke BC (juried)
- 2021: 51st Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show, Portals Gallery, Duncan BC
- 2021: 9th biennial Ladysmith Fine Arts Show, Ladysmith BC (juried)
- 2020: Summer Show, Victoria Arts Council, VAC Gallery, Victoria BC (juried)
- 2020: 50th Annual Fine Arts Show, Portals Gallery, Duncan BC (Hon. Mention award)
- 2020: UNTIL online gallery (Issue 4), Victoria Arts Council, Victoria BC (juried)