​​I am an art historian and museum professional creating and presenting educational art programs for museum visitors of all ages.

As Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art,  I created education programs within the museum and expanded outreach to schools and teachers. Teaching from the collection provided  an opportunity to develop expertise in interpreting American, European and Asian Art. 

While at the University of Kentucky Art Museum, I taught, curated exhibitions and conducted research focusing on the collection and its intersection with university curriculum.  My work in Kentucky was recognized three times with the Art Educator of the Year award.

I earned my Master’s degree in Museum Education from George Washington University and my Bachelor’s degree from Scripps College focusing on humanities and art history.

Living in Japan, my interest in Japanese ceramics and print-making led to my current focus on the intersection of American, European and Japanese art.

Looking At Art Together

Morris Louis, American 1912-1962 Untitled, 1959-160 at SFMoMA

What do you think this painting is about?  Can you spot a recognizable shape?  Find a subject?  The artist has not defined a subject, by calling the work Untitled, he challenges us to discover our own sense of it.  Louis was painting in the middle years of the twentieth century, a time of enormous change in a world recovering from the impact of the second World War.  For many, developments in science and technology pointed to change from the traditions of the past, to a more hopeful and peaceful future.    Morris Louis was one of many artists who experimented with new materials and pioneered innovative ways to make art.  He explored a new aspect of color, by diluting paint and directing its' path across unprimed canvas-using the absorbant nature of the fabric to let  color flow and dance. 

Morris Louis, American 1912-1962 Untitled, 1950-60 detail

Look closely at this detail, what can you see?  If you wanted to make a painting like this, how would you start? Do you expect to find brushstrokes?  Layers of color?  What may appear to be random is instead the result of  thoughtful and intentional layering of color.  He composed his works by pouring paint and moving the canvas.  Louis' compositions include the visual space of canvas, not an applied pigment, rather an element of equal importance with color.  We can imagine the artist at work by tracing the lines of color that flow and furl across the painting surface.