I am a native of Austria and lived there until my early twenties. As a child, I lived in my parent’s hotel so there was plenty of time to read and dream. Our place was on the banks of the Danube river. Looking across one could see gently rolling, deep green hills. The river dominated the city. It was bluish gray in summer and steel gray in winter. We lived in the oldest part of the city. There was a mix of architectural styles: Buildings from the early Middle Ages and the Baroque and ‘new’ 19th century additions.
After high school I attended the College of Art and Design of the City of Linz, after which I studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene for a year. I enrolled in summer school at the Chicago Art Institute and worked at The ‘Y’ in the mail room, in true American fashion.
I married and moved to Minneapolis. I attended classes at the University of Minnesota, the Schoolof Visual arts in New York City, with Milton Glaser, and at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design while raising four children.

I maintained my own studio and participated in the local art scene. I received awards and commissions. I leased a press for monotypes and participated in Open Studio and Art Walk events.

California and the West Coast beckoned, however, and I moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 2005.

ABOUT MY WORK:
My work is characterized by a playful sensibility. Circles, curves, squares and other elements seem to move to an invisible choreography. Paintings and prints reflect my optimistic take on life and a sense of joie de vivre. There is an exuberance of color, swooping gestures, sensuous curves and recurring groups of shapes. This profusion of elements is tamed by a strong sense of balance and design and an ultimate preference for formalism.
Since I have lived in Europe and in the United States, my work shows the influence of both continents. Some of the curves and ornamentation of the Baroque and also of the Viennese Jugendstil can be seen in my paintings. My strong sense of design and balance is from a later source: The Bauhaus and 20th century European design.
The United States has given me an appreciation of pop culture, especially its visual aspect, from the 30’s to today: Store signs and other parts of the urban environment; art pottery and everyday objects like towels and other fabrics from Midwestern homes; the bright, intensive colors of the California landscape and the cool but exuberant shapes of mid-century furniture and architecture.

PROCESS
I am a multimedia artist, with particular emphasis on monotype, collage and painting.
I approach each new piece with a sense of abandon, letting gestures, calligraphy and graphic elements break the blank expanse of the canvas. While I generally have a ‘plan of attack’, at the early stages of creating a work I will try out many different avenues, changing colors and forms and letting the material and an interior dialogue point the way until I feel that the piece has a certain direction. Then I am ready to implement the design and to organize the elements into an intricate, formal arrangement. Much like solving a visual puzzle, shapes , colors and lines will move about until the work achieves a harmonious balance.
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