I live in Ketchikan, Alaska. My hometown is on an island in the rain forest of southeast Alaska. My imagery is driven by questions and discoveries in this natural world, alternating between science and whimsy, the deep forest and the deep ocean.

My linocuts are originals printed individually from my hand carved blocks and hand colored. These are not reproduction prints.

My mind is very busy - I scratch out ideas as they come, most of my best ideas begin as cryptic doodles on pieces of scratch paper. An idea is developed and emerges as I carve it, in reverse, into a linoleum block. I use sharp carving knifes and gouges to create the image. After a process of proofing and recarving, I print my finished blocks using an etching press. Ink is first rolled out to a juicy consistency on glass and rolled in thin layers onto the surface of my carved block. I cover the block with clean archival paper and crank it by hand through the press. The print is pulled from the block and pinned to the wall to dry. The process is repeated for each print in the edition.

My small workshop is in the net-mending warehouse of an old cannery building built over the water. I watch boats and float planes go by in the channel as I crank the press.

Looking at works of the English engraver William Blake, who hand colored many of his etchings in the 18th century, inspired my current technique of hand coloring my prints. The work is quite labor intensive in edition, but it creates the look I want - the contrast of strong opaque ink with transparent washes.

I also create monotypes and mixed media works, often incorporating paper that I make. Building large vessels, columns and other dimensional objects in papier mache and mixed media book forms are other interests.
The relief print, however, remains my passion. The time I spend working in multiples (the repetition of printmaking) is a rolling meditation in motion. Ten years ago I would have regarded my methods as impractical. But with a nod to the printmaking ancestors - who used printmaking to hasten their efforts in producing the image of Buddha over and over as a means of achieving nirvana, I find myself positively immersed in multiple images. And regardless if enlightenment is at the end of the raven lined road, I simply strive to share my love of the natural world with others.

• Awarded 4 public art commissions in the state of Alaska.

• Illustrator of five children’s picture books:
-Lucky Hares and Itchy Bears (Alaska Northwest Books, 1996)
-Blueberry Shoe (Alaska Northwest Books, 1999)
-Whalemail (Island Heritage, 2001)
-Little Red Snapperhood (Westwinds Press, 2003)
-Ten Rowdy Ravens (Alaska Northwest Books, fall of 2005)

• llustrator of Newberry-award winning author Karen Hesse's YA novel Aleutian Sparrow, (Simon and Schuster, 2003).

• Represented by 8 galleries throughout Alaska, and the Midwest.

• Recipient of 2005 Rasmuson Foundation Grant.