My lifelong attraction to the visual arts intensified in 1993 when I photographed my first nude model. Prior to this, I received a degree teaching high school English from Hood College in 1988, graduating with Departmental Honors. The following fall, I began teaching at Noyes Detention Center in Rockville, MD, where I stayed for three years. I taught young felons math and English and organized talent shows.
I have always been a performer, as a classically trained singer and actress. I have performed in community theatre since 1985 and in 1997, I sang a repertoire of classical songs with an accompanist in local retirement homes. I created a children’s theatre when my two children, now grown, were in elementary school. I produced and directed eight productions over a period of two years.
My love of performance and knowledge of theatre has helped my photography. Paradoxically, although I understand stage direction, I prefer that my models find their own visual voice and, to that end, I encourage them to express themselves with abandon. My goal is not a still portrait requiring a half hour of posing but to catch a moment of spontaneous energy in which the model has perhaps forgotten she’s before a camera. We work as a collaborative team, as people do in theatre.
