biography

A native of Racine, Wisconsin, my home state shows up in much of my work.  I’ve been a musician (flautist) most of my life, and I’m not really sure what brain cell was triggered to make me want to put bright colored things on to paper and call it art.  All I knew was that I had been thinking about this for a few months and would wander in to hobby shops and around craft fairs trying to figure out just what it is I wanted to do.  It was only when I walked in to a Michaels that I found what I was looking for.  I had many different ideas of what I thought I wanted to do---putting bright colored stones either in to plaster of paris or clay was one of my first thoughts.  Or making a collage with different kinds of materials was another.  The artworks I was seeing displayed just seemed boring and pallid to me.  As you can see from my very 1st piece to my latest piece, #17, my work has evolved as I learned what works and what doesn’t.

Yes, I’ve been doing this for a little over a year now, but I’ve learned much and I hope that you enjoy my pieces as much as I do.

The rhinestones are genuine Swarovski and Czech (Preciosa) stones.  I glue each stone and sequin by hand—the sequins all have to be facing up for the maximum glitter affect.

I at first was going to call it “Nudie” art instead of “Bling”.  This was based, not on any pornographic ideas, but on the late designer Nudie Cohn.  He designed all the fancy performing suits worn by the big stars of the 50’s and 60’s.  Great performers such as Hank Wilson, Gram Parsons, Buck Owens, and Elvis Presley all wore his famous “Nudie Suits.”  These suits incorporated a lot of rhinestones and sequins, so I thought the title was apt.  Unfortunately nobody else knew these facts, and I was a little bit afraid of what kind of traffic I might get on my website with this title.

People ask me how I have the patience to do this, but I enjoy every second of it.  The stones and sequins are so beautiful.  I usually end up sneaking peeks at each piece several times a day.

I reside in Naperville, IL with my husband, Richard, and 2 cats, Chester and Otis.  I work at Regulus as an Account Specialist and play with the Fox Valley Philharmonic, the Wheaton Symphony, and Prairie Woods Woodwind Trio.  I also have played with the DuPage Symphony, the Fox Valley Symphony, the Classical Symphony of Chicago, the Benedictine University Concert Band, and the Lisle Community Band.  My hobbies besides BlingArt are reading, camping, hiking, and rooting for my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers!!