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How would you describe the work that you do?
I’m a painter. . . . Terry Becker and I had this conversation and she said, “You’re a metaphorical painter,” . . . and I think that’s true . . . because of working in so many different series. But, basically they all come from the same place. Personal history has a lot to do with it, interest in mythology and religion, . . . politics and what’s happening in the world around me. . . . [I am] mostly interested in [the] earth, the world, the environment. . . . I’m interested in systems.

Are there ways in which you intend your work to challenge the viewer?
I hope it does. I hope that they are accessible in a way that people can enter into them and maybe discover things about the paintings . . . my voice . . . but also things about themselves. . . . I have, at one time in my life, really questioned the value of making a mark on a piece of paper. . . . The end result of that questioning was . . . that’s what I do. . . . Some people knit, . . . some people write, . . . I make marks on a piece of paper or canvas or on a wall. . . . And then, I thought, if only one person understands something that I said, that was okay, . . . that was successful.

Is there something you are currently working on that you are particularly excited about?
Several things . . . . I have a body of work . . . RESURRECTION . . . of large scale paintings exploring woman's existence in our current culture. These paintings are metaphors about the circumstances that still exist in women’s lives even though we have worked tirelessly [to better these circumstances] since the first wave of feminism in the early 1900s. We are facing extreme possibilities that we women may not have control our own bodies. I want the work to counteract the destructive language on the airwaves, [the] hate language directed toward women and the men who speak out for us, and to affirm our strength, joy and ability to survive.

Also, I just did this whole series of etchings this summer of the [Witch] tree. I was very excited to be working in the print shop, . . . I had never done that before. . . . Another thing that I’ve been working on is drawing with music. . . . It’s listening and reacting to the patterns that the music makes.

What have been the greatest challenges to your art career and how do you navigate them?
I think the biggest challenge is living your life, making a living and trying to be authentic. I think that’s the biggest challenge . . . not trying to be, but having that as a primary value in your life and following that. I am very much interested in the spirituality of art. . . . It can be trivialized so easily in all those self-help books out there, . . . but that’s not what it’s about. . . . For me, it’s making my internal life external, so it’s visible. That’s the challenge. And keeping it authentic.

What advice has influenced you or your art making?
I would say the very first advice and encouragement I got was from my mother. She was a very important and perfect mother for me because she listened. . . . She always let me know that I could do anything that wanted to do . . . you can do it. That’s the best advice I had. . . . When I was living in New York, one of my friends was Louise Nevelson, she was like a mentor to me. . . . When we first met each other . . . we were talking about having been married young . . . and she just looked at me with her penetrating eyes and said, “How did you feel when you walked down the aisle?” And I said, “I felt like I wanted to run away.” And she said, “I can see that you’re telling th