I was born in Oklahoma, but my family moved to Lakewood Colorado when I was 5 years old. I landed in Fort Collins after attending graduate school at CSU. My husband and I fell in love with this community and never left!
Art has always been my passion and focus. Both of my Bachelors and Masters degrees are in art. I have taught art in private schools, art museums, universities and I owned my own art school "Flying Colors" before joining PSD in 2001. I began my public school teaching at Beattie in 2001 and in 2018 added the role as the Visual Art Curriculum Facilitator for PSD.
Beattie has such a strong and supportive community! I have the best job ever, I get to work in an art studio with kids! My job is to offer inspiration and to teach the strategies and techniques to think, make and talk about art. My goal is to provide my students with a growth mindset to take creative risks and to create art that is personally meaningful to them. The Beattie studio is based on a teaching philosophy called Teaching for Artistic Behavior or TAB for short. The child is the artist, the classroom is their studio, I invite them to do what artists do. I get to watch my students light up with excitement and wonder! When a student is given choice and a place to foster personal ideas, express and talk about what is important to them, magic happens! I am often astounded by their innovation as they experiment and play with materials. I feel honored to be a part of your children's creative process as we engage in experimentation and discovery through art.
I adore my family and all things related to art! I make, teach and look at art. I am a practicing artist and exhibit my work locally and nationally. I love to spend time in my studio. I also enjoy traveling and exploring new places with my family. I prefer to walk everywhere to discover the place , public art and meet the people. One of my favorite pastimes at home or traveling is to visit all types of museums and art galleries. I love to hike and go camping. I am a avid sky watcher and star gazer. I also love lazy days kayaking on a lake or sitting by the fire to read and play games with my husband and our son.