How I create:

My illustrations are created digitally in Procreate on my Ipad Pro, and/or in Photoshop with my Wacom Cintiq. I also love working in sketchbooks, and teaching mixed media art classes, so I am still very much connected to my paints and art materials.

Decades of creating mixed media art and illustration using traditional materials informs my digital work, and my long experience in illustration has given me a solid understanding of the process of creating successful finished images: I am professional, I know how to collaborate, and to make the changes that make the best work, and I know how to stay on schedule. I seek to clearly and creatively communicate, and to speak directly to the heart through the images I create.

Some things about me:

My last name is pronounced “like!” • I am an active member of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) • I currently have one submission-ready picture book proposal, and several others in progress. • I love Art Nouveau, gardening, birds, music, the poster art of Wes Wilson… and well–lots of other things! • I have a clever and very fun singer-songwriter/novelist/social-worker husband, and a lovely, bold and artistic daughter. She is president of the university film club, a 4.0gpa student, and is a vintage fashion icon to boot! • We live in the Missouri Ozarks on 15 acres with a creek that begins at an old spring house back in the woods. Our home is unique and magical: built in 1950: a passive-solar, mid-century modern that served as a retreat house for nuns for two of its seven decades! • I am trying to learn to play guitar, and trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo. The trajectory toward mastery on both of these goals appears to be long-term ;-)

A summary of my career:

2024 to present: I am working monthly with Giuseppe Castellano of the Illustration Department, creating the best illustration portfolio I have ever had.

2023: awarded the 2023 KS/MO SCBWI illustration mentorship with illustrator Violet Lemay. (Only one award is given yearly in the two state region).

2022: selected as the featured illustrator for the month of July for the KS/MO chapter of SCBWI

2015 (to present): began teaching art (as a contract teacher) for the Springfield Regional Arts Council, the Springfield Art Museum, and Placeworks. In 2024 & 2025, I am also teaching a grant funded series of mixed media classes for the Springfield-Greene County Library system.

I have taught art to pre-k children, drawing to teens, mixed media to adults, for kids at community centers, after school programs, summer art camps, international field trips, and a Congolese women’s group. I’ve also led group mural projects and art installations through the Placeworks program.

2005-2012: K-12 public school art teacher Yes, I taught ALL of the grades, at a small school.

2004: became a parent!

1995-2004: full time freelance illustrator

My clients have largely been in advertising: Borden, Tyson, Sears Portrait Studio, General American Insurance, etc. My largest client, Dynamic Graphics, Inc., was a world-wide distributor of stock illustration. I created hundreds of original illustrations for their “Designer’s Club” subscription art service.

1995: BFA in Design & Illustration, Missouri State University