About the Artist

How I Grew Up & Got Here

I started taking photographs even before my earliest carefully penciled poems appeared: at about the age of seven or eight. I think of myself as a "poet-ographer", using all of these vehicles to capture and convey images, history, emotions and, therefore, connection. Having entered kindergarten at the United Nations International School and emerged thirteen amazing years later with an International Baccalaureate degree, my childhood was steeped in the appreciation and celebration of language and cultural differences across the planet and one's individual universe.

Photojournalist

My freelance photography has appeared in the Boston Globe and Downeast Magazine, and my work has appeared for over a decade in the Central Maine Newspapers and the Capital Weekly.

As a regularly featured contributor to the Central Maine Newspapers' Women's Quarterly, I have had the privilege of presenting profiles of a wide and wonderful spectrum of women of all ages and places in life. They have included the Augusta family violence educator team; the women behind Tilbury House, Publishers; elementary teacher/emergency medical services provider Pat Rawson; onetime teenage single mother, now USAF Airman Caitlin Sliker; youth services librarian Sarah O'Sullivan; artist Jen Cart; independent radio producer and audio artist Dianne Ballon; student/arts collaborator Jessica Stammen; barber Patti Burnett; educator and women's advocate Trish Callahan, deputy state librarian Linda Lord; midwife Kristin Murray-James; veterinarian Judy Herman, planner and farmer Joyce Benson; and clay artist Shell Moore.

Book Reviewer

In addition to contributing my regular 'Booktalk' column to the Women's Quarterly, I have occasionally reviewed newly published books for the Central Maine newspapers Sunday 'Life and Leisure' section for more than a decade.

Feature Story/Section Writer/Photographer

Over the years, I have written in depth about my hometown of historic Hallowell, Maine for Central Maine Newspaper special sections. These Old Hallowell Day stories have featured local people, places and events of interest to residents and visitors. As a "travel writer" of sorts, my stories and feature essays and accompanying photographs have highlighted artists, musicians and the Maine cultural scene, and recounted my adventures through Maine's rich historical and natural heritage.

Librarian/Library & Literacy Advocate

As a child, I practically grew up at the public library next door. I would settle in with my homework as well as an abundant wealth of fun reading, at one of the huge wooden tables in the Reference Room. From there, I could look out one of the library windows directly into my family dining room, and catch my parents' signal to come home for supper. Since arriving in Maine about twenty years ago, in addition to sharing the joys of reading with my young daughter, I have been delighted to serve over various periods of time as Children's Librarian at Winthrop's C.M. Bailey Public Library; longtime Director of the Hubbard Free Library in Hallowell; Chair, Maine Student Book Award Committee; Chair, Lupine Award Committee; board member, Maine Writers & Publishers Association; member, Maine Library Association Communications Committee; and Executive Board member/Conference Coordinator, Friends of Maine Libraries.