Q:  Your main passions in life are traveling and making art. Is it safe to say that the two are inextricably connected for you?

A:  Yes. When I travel, I always try to record what I see and experience. I do sketches and watercolors on location and I use a good digital camera to take photos so I can create more artworks after I come back home again.

Q:  What is your earliest recollection of traveling?

A:  The first one I remember was a cross-country driving trip when I was 4 or 5 years old. California to New York, but I really can’t recall the details. I do remember a long road trip we took when I was about 9 years old. Up the coast of California, over the Golden Gate Bridge, up into Oregon to see the Sea Lion Caves, then further north to Seattle and finally British Columbia.

I saw Las Vegas a few times when I was young. This was when it was still a relatively small town. My dad was in television – he worked for CBS, NBC, ABC, all the major networks. He’d take me along on the airplane trips to Nevada, and that was quite a thrill for a young girl. I was always a geography buff and was fascinated by different cultures and exotic locales. My parents were National Geographic subscribers for many years. They were stacks of past issues on the bookshelves, right next to the Worldbook Encyclopedia – my other global research resource. At 12 years old, my plan was to become a photographer for National Geographic and travel all over the world.

Q:  In a large sense, you’ve accomplished most of that dream. What about the tropics? What was your first experience there? Your art shows a definite affinity for the tropical lifestyle.

A: Yes, I really do love the tropics. I collected every single copy of Islands magazine for about 20 years, beginning with issue #1. I guess my first experience would have been a road trip we took when I was 11 years old. The family drove all the way down to Guaymas, a fishing town on the Gulf of California  – not in Baja but on the mainland of Mexico.  I guess it was about a 700 mile drive from Los Angeles. Back then, in the late 1960s, Guaymas was still a picturesque town with a fishing-based economy. It has grown quite a bit since then. But I still remember the warm water in the big bay, tropical breezes and the wonderful local people.

We also used to go down to San Felipe in the late 1970s and early 1980s. My sister and brother-in-law did triathalons, so we were probably down there 5 or 6 times. San Felipe had the same vibe as Guaymas, dominated by the fishing industry, but a little funkier and more small-town charm

Q: You mentioned that you are working on some desert pieces. What is the driving force there?

A:  Actually, I’ve spent a good deal of time in the desert. My mother was a model and did fashion shows in Palm Springs when I was young, so we were down there a lot. I guess from 8 to 16 years old we did spring break there as well. Now my mom lives in Palm Springs – she has been a performer in the Follies for 13 years now, so I get down there quite a bit. The desert has so many moods, subtle color shadings, and unique plants and flowers. That’s why I find it so fascinating to paint.  

Q: You just got a faraway look there. What was on your mind?

A:  I was just thinking about my time in the Girl Scouts. That was such a good time for me. We went on backpack trips up into the Sierras. We went to Colorado too. I backpacked in Telluride and in the Four Corners area. Beautiful and majestic vistas in Telluride; I’d love to go back there. We also went down to Rosarito, in Baja, and camped on that great wide beach there.

Q: What was the first island you recall visiting?

A: Well, that would have to be Catalina. My family spent every summer there in the late 1960s and early 1970s. My aunt and uncle, who were quite well off, had a summer home there. They would take their yacht over and anchor it in Avalon Bay. We flew back and forth on the seaplane, which was quite a thrill. I loved the island and got to know a lot of interesting places not frequented by the tourists.

Q:  What about Hawaii? I know you spend considerable time on Maui and Oahu each year. When did the Islands become part of your life?

A:  I went to Hawaii for the first time when I was 15. I wanted to visit cousins who lived there, and my parents gave me a round-trip airline ticket for Christmas. Somewhere I have a photo of me climbing a palm tree on that trip. I was also crazy about Hawaii Five-O. Never missed the weekly show with Steve, Dano and the rest of the guys. I have to admit I still really like that show. In fact, my son, Corey, gives me a season of Hawaii Five-O on DVD every Christmas.

Q: I know you traveled quite a bit by working on sailing vessels. How did that come about?

A:  That’s a whole story in itself. After high school, I was a student at Pierce College, in Woodland Hills. I took art classes, astronomy, and sailing. And that was where I learned to navigate. I had been thinking about possibly crewing on a boat somewhere to get some practical experience. One day, I picked up a magazine, and there was an ad for a boat job down in San Diego. The next thing I knew I was part of the crew on a 30-foot sailboat. I guess I was 19 then, and I got that experience I was seeking. Our first trip out was from San Pedro Harbor to Honolulu. It took us a month to get there, including sailing right through a full-blown hurricane. Somehow we found our way to the Alawai Yacht Harbor on Oahu.

Q: I guess you were happy to finally find dry land.

You have no idea. I got off the boat, literally got down on my knees and kissed the ground in gratitude. Next stop was a local restaurant for a big cheeseburger and some ice cream.  I met a girl at the restaurant and we hit it off well, and I ended up rooming with her and her husband. I spent time working as a nanny out in Kahala but the sea had gotten into my blood. I later went to work for Windjammer Cruises – you know, those big high-tech sailing vessels? We sailed out of the Kewalo Basin on Oahu and went on interisland cruises, mostly around Lanai, Maui and Molokai. We'd take off on a Friday night, pull into a bay on the west coast of Lanai, then on Saturday we would snorkel, eat lunch and then head over to Lahaina, on Maui. After spending the evening in Lahaina, the boat would leave port in the middle of the night. On Sunday morning we would arrive in Kaunakakai, Molokai. The first stop was for breakfast at the local bakery. We would sail back over to Oahu in the afternoon.

During that period of time I lived in Kahala, Waikiki, and Haleiwa, so I was seeing a lot of Oahu, as well as the outer islands. And of course, I kept seeing so much that I wanted to paint. One day I picked up a coconut and started to paint on the husk. It came out pretty well, so I did another, and another. Pretty soon I was selling my coconuts at the Honolulu Zoo fence and doing a thriving business. I called them ‘Coco-Notes', but I can't really lay claim to coining the name. they were called that because you could put stamps on the coconut, write a message on it and send it from the post office to practically anywhere in the world. A little later I met a woman who offered to buy all the coconuts I could paint. It seemed like a good deal at the time – she paid me the princely sum of one dollar each, but later I found out they were selling at JC Penney for $10.00 apiece, so I guess I wasn’t really getting what they were worth. I also began doing small watercolors and selling them at the Zoo fence too.

Q:  How long were you in Hawaii?

A:  Well, the first time, I guess that was from age 19 to 21. I had a boyfriend there at the time, and things weren’t working out well, so I thought maybe it was time to go home to see my family and look for a new direction. So I headed back to California, planning to paint and to look for work on a sailboat there. I painted a lot but didn’t have much luck finding a boat to crew on. Then one day, I ran into the daughter of a friend of my mom’s. She had worked for the dolphin researcher, John Lilly and was currently working at a dive resort in Honduras. She said she knew someone looking for a boat crew on Roatan, which is part of the Bay Islands. They’re located off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, south of Belize.

Q: Sounds like you had found a new career niche.

A:  Oh yes. A couple of weeks later I was on a small, old cargo plane flying out of Tegucigalpa.  The plane not only didn’t have seat belts, the seats weren’t even bolted down. If you can believe this, they were folding chairs! So there I was, with a death-grip on the sides of my folding chair, mentally composing my last will and testament. The flight ended on a dirt strip that was little more than a cow pasture. What a ride that was.

Q:  So what was the new job like?

A:  It was on a beautiful 72-foot sailboat. There was the captain and a crew of three –a girl from Florida, a guy who spoke only French, and me.  Honduras is a gorgeous place, and this was a very good time for me as an artist. I was painting practically every day, also doing graphite drawings and pen-and-inks. I got into doing miniatures, and found out quickly that they are as hard to do as larger paintings. I was getting my art supplies form people we knew who would travel up to Galveston periodically for building materials and the like.

Q:  How long did you spend in Honduras?

A:  Less than two years. This was the period of 1982-83 and the political unrest was getting very bad. Quite dangerous actually, especially for us Yanquis, because of the changes happening in the government. As much as I like working on the sailboat, I decided it might be a good time to head back to US soil. My next stop was Fort Lauderdale. I liked Florida and stayed there for a month or so, then found myself back in California. Over the past 25 years I have spent a great deal of time in Hawaii, and in California. I spent a few weeks down in Costa Rica painting a very large mural for the interior of a beautiful home there.

Q:  Where else have your travels taken you?

I have traveled to Europe three times so far. My oils from Monet’s home in Giverny came from the first trip, and on the second trip I began to make the small watercolor pieces that are so popular. I really like doing them because they are like taking a snapshot of certain place and capturing the essence of that particular moment.  I covered a lot of ground on the second trip; Austria, Switzerland, Germany, northern Italy, and France, so quite a bit of work came out of that trip. I was in Paris and the surrounding countryside about 6 months ago. I took some great photographs there that will eventually become the basis for paintings.

Q:  So what’s next for you?

A:  These days, I travel back and forth to Maui and Oahu several times each year. I have a studio on Maui and one in Simi Valley, so I can work in both places.  My print facility is at my studio in California, but my koa frames and lauhala mats are custom made in Hawaii. If I stay away from the Islands too long I start to feel like I need to get on a plane and go back to the places in Hawaii that keep me centered. I really feel like I’m a dual-resident of Hawaii and California. I'll be on Kauai in September or October. My best childhood girlfriend is going over with me. She really loves Kauai.

I’m also planning a trip to Mexico later this year, probably to the Ixtapa area. And I’ll be at the Haleiwa Arts Festival in July. It’s a fun show and there is such great camaraderie between the artists and the art collectors who come to see the show. While I’m there on Oahu I hope to do some plein air painting up on the North Shore. There are some wonderful spots there to paint. 

Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter!