About the Artist

I love art, the feeling of painting is deeply fulfilling to me. I believe it is what I should be doing with my one wild and precious life. There is so much that thrills me in the work of other artists past and present, and that I yearn to see in my own work. I don’t always feel like my desires and my results are a perfect match, but I have learned to not spend time worrying about it. Persistence is the key. Van Gogh said it perfectly:

"I think that a painter ought to paint pictures; possibly something else may come after that."

Being an artist was a given from my earliest childhood. I flowed into my artist skin as naturally as breathing. I was always curious and exploring anything pertaining to art. It was my good fortune that my mother was also an artist and art educator, so I had answers to my questions on demand. She imparted to me the understanding that aiming for high standards in artistic endeavors meant accepting that it is a path with no real arrival point, always a journey. Her encouragements included admonitions—like telling me “don’t rest on your laurels” after I had enjoyed a great success. Setting the bar high makes the quest more delectable, albeit frustrating!

I have always been an avid reader and museum goer. I honed in on the history of art and spent many hours studying the lives and work of the masters. My formal art education started at 12 years old, winning free scholarships to Saturday school in the Columbus College of Art & Design. I had a wonderful high school art teacher, who was very serious about me getting serious about my work, God Bless him! I wish he could see me now…

I attended Denison University, where I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The arts department was not particularly strong, but it offered me the wonderful opportunity to spend my junior year abroad. I chose to live in Aix-en-Provence, and ferreted out every life drawing venue in the area. I was able to draw from nude models 7 days a week, and outside of the workshops I was drawing and sketching in cafes and all over town, and tagging along on plein air painting adventures with other painters. I liked listening to the critiques in some of the private painting schools, and reading the materials they recommended, but I mostly stayed on the outskirts and forged my own path.

My painting path led me to live a year in Morocco after graduation, where I used watercolours to deepen my understanding of colour mixing. Following that experience I ended up in California, where I made a decision that under no circumstances would I work in any job unless it was arts related. It wasn’t easy but I managed. Creating stain glass windows helped me to buy a ticket to American Samoa, the first leg in an adventure that would be decisive for my future. I was heading to Tahiti, to surprise my sweetheart who was working onboard a luxury yacht, bound for the South Seas.

I managed to arrive in Papeete a week before they sailed into the port, and my boyfriend was ready to disembark. He was able to secure a job for the return voyage 8 months later, and in the meantime we lived on a little houseboat in Opunohu Bay, on Moorea. I began drawing with pen&inks, with the intention of showing my work in Tahiti. That show was so successful I was sold out in 2 days and people were begging for more! So I stayed longer and had another show, and it was brilliant! I knew that I had found my “spot”. Every artist needs to find the place where their production can flow from a boundless fount of inspiration, and the practical aspects of life are taken care of as if by magic. I found that in Tahiti. But then we had to leave.

So I headed to the south of France thinking I would paint and work on obtaining my long stay visa for Tahiti. My boyfriend came and lived with me there, and convinced me to return to the US and restore an old building in Providence RI. He argued that with the rents from the apartments we could go back to the South Seas and have an income. It made sense to me, and I envisioned 4-5 years of hard work followed by a return to the islands.

Twenty years later, I applied for the visas for me and my two children. I was aching to be back in the earthly paradise that had so thrilled my artistic senses. My (now ex)husband no longer shared my dream. We arrived on the island of Huahine October 1st 1999, dragging suitcases and art supplies for a year of living creatively. In just a few days we found a little house, and I immediately got to work painting the still life our landlord had arranged on the table.
It’s been twenty years of unending inspiration for me. My children learned to speak French and enjoyed the freedom of living an unfettered existence in nature. I eventually became adopted by the locals and invited to build a house and studio/gallery on land belonging to the family of a beautiful young man who has inspired many paintings. I have plans to paint so many things, the hard part is deciding which to do next.

I have maintained a regular exhibition schedule in Papeete Tahiti, and am present in all the finer galleries of the Society Islands. My work hangs onboard the Paul Gauguin cruise ship, and can also be found in Hawaii, Oahu, and Maui. I even have a little spot in Raglan, New Zealand! I am referenced in all the guides for French Polynesia, and I have visitors daily in my studio. My artwork has been collected by many French dignitaries, as well as celebrity tourists. I have been honored with inclusion in the Salon Nationale des Beaux Arts de Paris, with special mention. I am a life member of the Fondation Taylor, an arts association created in Paris in 1844 by the Baron Taylor.

I have never cared about protocol that involves retaining and listing achievements and awards. It isn’t something that matters to me. My focus is on my personal growth. I love when people recognize my abilities and praise my work. It makes me happy when they buy a piece to enjoy in their lives, hopefully for many years. I have confidence that if I just keep doing what feels best my well-being is assured, and so far this formula has worked for me. I love doing what I do, and I love spreading that love to others through their acquisition—or simply their appreciation--of my paintings.

I paint what I see, and what I feel about what I am seeing comes through. “With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of all things” said William Wordsworth. There is an ineffable something that animates all things, and it is that something that I try to mirror in my work. Light is the element that calls my inspiration forth. I thrill to the interaction of light with the natural world. My desire is to translate onto the canvas the feeling of my inspiration while allowing the paint the liveliness of its own innate expression.

I am especially fond of the medium of oil paint, but I enjoy experimenting with all mediums of artistic expression. I often take breaks from oil painting to play with watercolour or gouache, acrylics, pastels, inks and charcoals. People constantly remark on the variety and volume of my output. I always say "I'm just doing what I love to do." And I have boundless appreciation for the fact that I CAN.

Mauruuru.