A L T A R E G O became my official business title after I realized how ritualistic my work had become.

P R E S E R V I N G . H I S T O R Y :
Countless young days were spent collecting, admiring and preserving beautiful treasures found on the beaches of Laguna Beach and Mendocino redwood forests. As I began to branch out and explore new avenues of art and mixed media, I discovered that my passion for preserving and working with antique and vintage materials comfortably nestled with the idea of preserving the dead. To place them together creates a homage that people can connect with on a more profound level.

W H Y . T A X I D E R M Y ?
Since there is such a significant energy exchange that occurs with death as well as the process of preserving the deceased, I make sure that all antiques are as naturally examined and collected as any deceased fragments I choose to use.
I really like to know every items back story: what are their origins, if they are imported from another country, belonged to a deceased eccentric old family member, or took part in a memory that was passed to the current owner of the possession. I then have the privilege of honoring the story of each piece, rendering them to the most significant extent of their new life and passing that story on with its new owner.

W H Y . B I R D S ?
Wings have been an obsession of mine from a very early age, and it's exciting to see that my love for wings has become a symbol that has brought me to this current artistic stage.
Wing imagery invades my fine art, but I really love the depth and an understanding of respect that comes with connecting to a once-living being and preserving it with other antique fragments, fusing their seperate histories together. Of course I can't speak for the individual birds that I have preserved, but I'd like to think that they would appreciate the gesture of being perfectly preserved in a state of flight.

T O . M Y . A M A Z I N G . C L I E N T S :
My work tends to lean toward females of all ages and variety, though I like to hope that my pieces grace the bodies and walls of anyone who has a deep love for the curious, the lovely and the macabre. I aim to evoke a sense of wonder and imagination. To take the hand of the Alice within and bring them into a personal wonderland of profound beauty, sultry seduction, and imprint something upon them that maybe they long to express, relay or understand in themselves.

A B O U T . M Y . I L L U S T R A T E D . W O R K S :
The men and women I draw have a lot to say. They are strong, often portraying states of weakness or despair, and they aren't ashamed of their vulnerability.
My drawings tend to speak of heartache, loss, darker concepts, and like the phoenix they rise from the ashes through surrealist, romantic, sometimes darker interpretations. Drawing is my release. It is my therapy, and throughout my life I've used it to tell a story. To share little parts and fragments of my psyche and raw, unbridled thoughts or feelings that lie just below the surface.