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Born in 1942, in Providence, Kentucky, she was an experienced traveler from an early age, since her father was a career man with the U.S.Army. At three she was living in Germany, at eleven, in Yokahama, Japan. In between were stops from California to Texas to Arkansas. With all this moving about, books became a haven with bright colored worlds that remained constant. These early influences of illustrators such as Dulac, Rackham, Wyeth were to show up years later in her own work. When she entered the field of professional illustration the sense of capturing those moments in a story and putting it on paper for the reader was a driving force. “Interior illustrations offer a larger scope and give many more chances to play with the story”.
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An art scholarship to Sacred Heart Dominican College in Houston, Texas offered four years to learn the basics of the field, although the double major of biology satisfied the other half of her interests. In addition to learning color, perspective, composition, etc., she was finding out how things were put together from the inside out. This also came into play later with the illustrations she began creating for fanzines such as Energumen, Granfalloon, Aspidistra, and Science Fiction Review. After selling every piece of work entered into the 1969 Sci-Fi Worldcon in St. Louis, she began to accept professional assignments in the first two Universe anthologies edited by Terry Carr, then she became a regular artist for Vertex magazine. Until this point, her work as published was entirely black/white illustration. Approached by Donald Grant, she created her first color work for his publication of Robert E. Howard’s poetry in Echoes from an Iron Harp. This book was the first of many published by Grant for which she did cover and interior illustrations. Other illustrated books followed, for Grant as well as other publishers. Each pushed her just that much farther on the learning curve, with an increasing sense of confidence and achievement.
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She has explored many topics through the years as an illustrator. While a traditionally European based sense of fantasy was the jumping off point for much of her work, other areas have not been neglected. Oriental, Russian, Far, Near and Middle Eastern realms have been touched on. The most recent explorations have been into the vast and exciting worlds of Native American mythologies. Ranging from the humor and exuberance of some of the tales to mystical, powerful interpretations of creation stories, they represent some of her finest, most mature work.
Presently living in los Angeles, she continues to create new works. While she has trimmed back the number of conventions and shows she attended in recent years, she has never stopped painting. Private commission work, as well as pieces for her own, and others enjoyment, have occupied her time. She is currently working with FTL Publications to produce cover and interior art for this small-press publisher of science fiction and fantasy titles.
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