The Art of Living

Before becoming a professional artist I had a long career in non-profit administration, helping people experiencing poverty, homelessness and cancer.   My proudest achievement in my non-profit work was working at Quest Center as co-founder and creative leader of the Healing and Empowerment Program (HEP) for women with breast cancer.   As a cancer survivor myself, I wanted to share the powerful knowledge I gained during treatment that healing is a complex process requiring holistic medical care and much more; true healing takes community support, creative activity and a whole lot of self-searching.   During my six years as a breast cancer advocate at Quest Center I organized more than 40 weekend art workshops in nearly every media. These workshops became one of the focal points of the program and helped me discover my own passion for art making.

In 2009 my work at Quest Center with cancer patients was featured on Oregon Art Beat. Check out the video here. The segment about my healing project starts at 9:45 (9 minutes 45 seconds) into the video.