About

Growing up in the woods on the Oregon coast, I always imagined that I would become a writer. But after I went to graduate school with that goal in mind, I found that all the joy had been taken out of it. I had produced some work that I was proud of, and performing my short fiction at an open mic in Chicago was exhilarating, but I wasn’t interested in either the business or the academics of being a writer, whatever that meant. So I quit, and just painted canvases for ten years.

I’ve always loved to draw and paint, but as you can tell, I didn’t exactly train for it as a career. I paint for myself, for the fun of it. During this time in the early 2000’s, I was helping to run a comic book store in Chicago, and used its walls as a place to hang my work. I discovered that my joy overlapped with the joy of other comic nerds, cartoon fans, and movie buffs, which encouraged me to follow my whims and just have a good time with it. Even though I often sell my work, and have been known to take commissions, I don’t paint anything if I don’t think I’m going to like the project.

The first time I made a mask was around 2002. A huge, creepy clown mask for Halloween, and my first three-dimensional work. This kicked off an annual tradition that became an enormous source of joy, so in 2015 after I moved back to Oregon, I finally decided to start making masks without the excuse of Halloween. To date, all the masks I’ve made are paper mache, a medium that I absolutely love. One of my greatest pleasures is testing the limits of what paper mache can do!

Making masks year-round means that all my Halloweens are even better now, because I have a lot of starting points to choose from. The months of August through October are devoted to Halloween costumes, and when I’m lucky, I get to help my partner make one too.