Me in my home studio
“How long does it take you to make a painting?”
I get this question a lot, and the truth is I really have no idea… I think that's a good thing.
When I’m in the “flow state” in my studio, I lose track of time and, at best, even myself. In just one painting, there are many previous paintings—worlds covered by new worlds. The good parts get saved and the better parts—the precious bits that I fall in love with easily but are notoriously distracting—they get ruthlessly covered over for the benefit of the whole. I work best on a large scale so that there is enough room for all the things—repeated marks, opaque patches of acrylic color bumping up against translucent fields, drawn lines, scrapes, smudges, and smears. I love to draw and have found that pulling colors, shapes, and compositional ideas from real-life sources (interior design magazines, children’s book illustrations, and always—flowers) keeps the painting fresh and bold and can bring an element of unease or a strangely-recognizable weirdness to the piece.
When a piece is finished (however long that takes), I love the process of coming up a title almost as much as I love painting it. I will stand back, say a prayer, and think about what was going on in my head while I was making the piece—maybe what’s been bothering me or maybe the palette will stir up a memory of an object or room. I choose a title that connects those thoughts with a relatable feeling or moment—the more specific, the better. I also often ask my girls for help with titles or critiques because they are not afraid to be honest. In the end, the titles are a gentle invitation to take a closer look for that zing of understanding and the “Oh yeah, I see it!” moment.
SIDE NOTE: I'm right-handed, but I draw and paint with my left hand--sometimes both hands at the same time!
BIOGRAPHY
I grew up in an old farm house at the end of a dirt road in Swanville, Maine—a mostly-untouched, rural environment perfect for observing and exploring. I was so fortunate and blessed that there was no lack of creativity in my extended family and all forms of artistic expression were encouraged and supported. My parents (as true back-to-the-landers) even transformed an old chicken barn on our property into an alternative-education school where I don’t really remember doing anything other than sledding, making paper valentines, listening to my teacher read out loud, and climbing trees with my friends. As a teenager, I worked hard to be a “normal public school kid” but the happy little weirdo side of me was persistent and after a year as a music major at Bates College, my piano teacher suggested perhaps I would be happier in the visual art program. I began painting abstractly during a semester abroad at Tyler School of Art in Rome and was hooked. Years later, I left a graphic design job to funnel most of my creative energy into being a full-time mom to two wonderful girls (they are in college now!). When they started school full time, I decided to paint professionally and now I work in my messy-but-active art studio in the back room of our house in Massachusetts.
EDUCATION:
Bates College, B.A., Studio Art, 1996
Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Spring Semester Abroad in Rome, 1995
SHOWS
2025
Solo Show, “Love Notes in Winter” Tiny Art Gallery Montclair, Montclair, NJ
Group Show, “Enormous Tiny Art Show #37” Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
Members Juried Show MJ1, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2024
Group Show, “Small Works Show 2024” Gallery B Gallery, Castine, ME
The Other Art Fair (November), ZeroSpace Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Group Show, “Fresh” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
The Other Art Fair (May), ZeroSpace Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Members Juried Show MJ1, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2023
Group Show, “Illumination 2023” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Group Show, “Glimmer” Gallery on Federal, Newburyport, MA
Group Show, “Small Works Show 2023” Gallery B Gallery, Castine, ME
Group Show, “Pairings” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Group Show, “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” Gallery B Gallery, Castine, ME
Group Show, “Chroma” Paradigm Gallery and PXP Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
Group Show, “Lasting Impressions” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Group Show, “Enormous Tiny Art Show #33” Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
Members Juried Show MJ1, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2022
Small Works Show, “Art for Right Now” Gallery B Gallery, Blue Hill, ME
Group Show, “Flights of Fancy” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
23rd Annual Roddy Art Competition & Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
The Other Art Fair, Dallas, TX
Group Show, “Splash, Drip, Throw” Visionary Art Collective, Online
Art PM, Buoy Art Gallery, Kittery, ME
2021
3-Person show, “Vivace” Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
22nd Annual Roddy Art Competition & Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Group Show, “Cool, Calm & Collected” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Group Show, “Marks We Make” Curator’s Salon, Online
Group Show, “Looking Up” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Members Juried Show 1, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2020
Large Group Show, “Illumination” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
21st Annual Roddy Art Competition & Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
“While We Were Away,” Cultural Center of Cape Cod Online Exhibit
Live Curation Online Event with Alicia Puig from PXP Contemporary Gallery, Hosted by Showfields Gallery in New York
PxP Contemporary, “Kaleidoscope”. Online Exhibition
Members Juried 2 Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Members Juried 1 Painting and Sculpture Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2019
Large Group Show, “Illumination” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Affordable Art Holiday Show, Zullo Gallery, Medfield, MA
20th Annual Roddy Art Competition & Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Large Group Show: “re/seeing HUMDRUM” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Solo Show: “Some Assembly Required” Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA
Large Group Show: “Thrive” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
Small Group Show: “A Room with a View,” Gallery Twist, Lexington, MA
2018
Large Group Show: “Illumination,” Gallery Twist, Lexington MA
The Other Art Fair—LA, Los Angeles, CA
19th Annual Roddy Art Competition & Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
2018 Annual National SCWS Exhibition, South Carolina Watermedia Society, Columbia SC
“Green” National Juried Show, Webster Arts, Webster Groves, MO
Members Juried Show MJ1, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Third-Annual Juried Exhibit, Milton Art Center, Milton, MA
3-Person Show, "Concrete Random", Zullo Gallery, Medfield, MA
2017
Solo Show: "Float," Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, MA
18th Annual Roddy Art Competition and Juried Show, Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Juried Show and Affordable Art Show, Zullo Gallery, Medfield, MA
2016
Westford Regional Art Event, Parish Center for the Arts, Westford, MA
First-Annual Juried Exhibit, Milton Art Center, Milton, MA
"Abstracted" Juried Show, Chelmsford Center for the Arts, Chelmsford, MA
Solo Show: "Ladders," Epsom Public Library, Epsom, NH
PUBLICATIONS
The Boston Globe, “My Instagram” feature, May 18, 2019
Dialogist: Quarterly Poetry & Art, Vol. IV, Issue III, https://dialogist.org/v4i1
Cassidy, Benjamin: “Art Selfies: Is Instagram Worth the Time?”, Art New England, March/April 2018, p. 18-19
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Gregg Irby Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2019-2024
AWARDS
2022—Third Prize, Painting and Drawing, Women United Art Prize
2017--First Prize. Art Muse "Abstracted" Contest, December 2017, "Refined"
2016--Best in Show. Westford Regional Art Event, March 2016, "Foggy Morning"
WORKSHOPS/DEMOS
You Will Love Yupo: Artist Talk and Demo, Concord Art Association, October 2019
Artist Talk and Demo, Gallery Twist, February 2019
Water Lab: Art Experiments on Yupo Paper--West Elm, Burlington, Aug. 22, 2017
MEMBERSHIPS
Christians in the Visual Arts, 2019
Concord Art Association, 2017
ABOUT THE NAME OF THIS SITE: Toddy Pond is a real pond, which is walking distance from where I grew up, and also the name of a tiny, alternative-education school my parents and some of their friends started and where my brothers and I attended. When someone says, "just go to your happy place"--I always think of Toddy Pond.