I am a visual artist working in reUse materials with a formal background in painting, jewelry and metalsmithing. The relationship between art and the environment is very central to my actual process of creating, in that I favor the inherent variety that comes with repurposed media. The materials themselves show effects of the environment, and with them I can describe my own relationship with it in new and interesting ways. Making abstract, symbolic landscapes and redesigning with nature is endlessly interesting. I am grateful to live in the NW where trees, water, animals and especially weather have an immediate effect on me, which accounts for what one recent art critic called my 'altered lens' on this region.