I make paintings about scenes that take my breath away: Pacific Northwest forests and waterways to backyard sunsets and sunrises. I paint abstracted landscapes with acrylic and I use all colors of the visible spectrum. Color is energy to me, as found in auras and gemstones. I paint with earth tones over a layer of bright colors because the vibrations between the two feel good to me. Earth tones from the tangible world describe the way nature looks to me and bright colors address the imagination of how nature feels to me. The initial layer of bright, expressive brushstrokes is from the imagined world of what it might feel like to actually be inside of a gemstone. I explore what the sensation would feel like to be enveloped in the refracted light of an opal or the luminescence of inclusions in peridot as though it were an exploration of belonging. And belonging with landscape is the bedrock of my paintings. My intention to place the viewer inside a crystal aims to convey that we are not separate from the natural world. Nature is not something we observe, it is something we are. I think by providing awareness of our inherent belonging to nature, we can find answers to feelings of isolation and experience a sense of being supported by and supporting life around us. I find this theme of belonging though gemstones and my imagination because when I go inside, I find that I am connected to all that is.
Since 2022, I have been wrapping my paintings on canvas around conical forms of various sizes and arranging them in hourglass shaped configurations.
I often wonder with whom or what I’m having a conversation in my interior world. Investigating conversations between the seen and unseen is integral to my work; spiritual/physical, as above/so below, celestial/terrestrial. The meeting point between two cones is symbolic of part of this questioning; the upper cone as infinity and the lower cone receiving and reflecting the infinite in continuous conversation. In addition, Agnes Pelton’s transcendental paintings and my ongoing studies in animal communication and energy healing offer me a constant source of inspiration and a rich meeting place between the interior and exterior world of landscape.
Gallery Representation
Seattle Art Museum Gallery
Collections
2019 Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
2016 State of New Mexico
2013 Cardno Entrix Environmental, Seattle, WA 2012 Spoken Communications, Seattle, WA 2011 Confluence Environmental, Seattle, WA 2002 University of Oregon Collection (Housing) 2001 University of Oregon Print Archive
Education
B.A. 2002* Studio Art University of Oregon B.F.A. 2003* Painting University of Oregon *Summa cum laude
Areas of Specialization: Drawing, painting
Exhibitions Records
2023 Site:Brooklyn, online groups how
2023 WA State Public Art Roster
2023 Hideout, Group show, curated by Jeremy Buben, Seattle, WA
2023 Daydream, group show SAM Gallery
2022 SAM Night Live, Destination: Universe and Golden Hour on display at Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle Art Museum
2022 realArt, co op membership Los Angeles, CA
2022 Evergreen, group show SAM Gallery
2021 Secret Garden, solo show SAM Gallery
2021 Carillon Point, Solo Show, Kirkland, WA
2020 Not Too Big, Not Too Small, Zinc Contemporary, group show, Seattle, WA
2020 Niki Keenan at TASTE Cafe, solo show SAM Gallery, cancelled due to Covid-19
2019 Motherland, CoCA, Group Show, Seattle, WA (juror: Amanda Manitach)
2019 Introductions, SAM Gallery, Group Show, Seattle, WA
2018 Creativity Persists, CoCA, Group Show, Seattle, WA (juror: Jody Bento)
2018 That Glow, College Club, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2018 Northwest Vision, Lynnwood Convention Center, Group Show, Lynnwood, WA
2018 Carillon Point, Solo Show, Kirkland, WA
2017 Portals Lake Washington Rowing Club, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2017 Kirkland Summerfest, Group Show, Kirkland, WA (juror: Ryan James)
2017 Exuberance: Beauty, BallardWorks, Group Show, Seattle, WA
2017 Anchors Aweigh, College Club, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2017 Kirkland Arts Center, Artists’ Exhibition, Group Show, Kirkland, WA
2016 8 Bells Winery, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2016 Sundance Cinema Gallery, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2016 Why We Row, College Club, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2015 Inky Spokes, Tacoma Art Museum, Group Show, Tacoma, WA
2015 Gallery 901 and Encaustic Art Institute, Group Show, Santa Fe, NM
2014 Carillon Point, Solo Show, Kirkland, WA
2013 8 Bells Winery, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2013 Miniature Art Extravaganza, All City Art, Group Show, Seattle, WA
2013 Fremont Brewing Co, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2013 Kirkland Arts Center, ArtStage Gallery, Solo Show, Kirkland, WA
2013 Archetypes: Pattern, Place and Space, Corridor Gallery, Group Show, Seattle, WA
2013 Bemis Spring Art Show, Seattle, WA
2013 Be A Saint, Sylvia White Gallery, Group Show, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Celebration, Washington State Convention Center, Artist Trust,Group Show, WA
2012 Alki Arts Gallery, Group Show, Seattle, WA
2012 The Whole Picture, Caffe Ladro, Solo Show, Kirkland and Queen Anne, WA
2011 Backyard Playground– ArtPrize, Group Show, Grand Rapids, MI
2011 The Whole Picture- 619 Western, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2010 Tahoma- Strut, Greenwood Artwalk, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2010 Mr. Mulligan- Urban Light Studios, Solo Show, Seattle, WA
2003 B.F.A Terminal Show– U of O Eric Washburn Gallery, Group Show, Eugene, OR
2003 Lifting Up- U of O Laverne Krause Gallery, Solo Show, Eugene, OR
2002 the sun was there- U of O, Laverne Krause Gallery, Solo Show, Eugene, OR
2002 1st annual Big House Event- Wilkinson House, Group Show, Eugene, OR
2002 Drawings in Books– Laverne Krause Gallery, Group Show, Eugene,OR
Professional Experience
2020-2021 Guest teacher, online classes, Villa Academy & Teaching Scholars UW
2016-2019 Guest teacher, Eight Bells Winery
2015 Photo collage workshop, guest teacher, Santa Fe, NM 2013 Search for Meaning, Guest Artist, Seattle University, WA
2013 Shankill Castle Artist Residency with Elizabeth Cope, Ireland September
2013 Grunewald Guild Artist Residency, Leavenworth, WA, February
2011 Artist Trust EDGE Professional Development Program, Seattle, WA
2000 Guard, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Downtown Annex
1998-2000 summers Art camp assistant for artist John Hartley, Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth
Selected Awards
2003 AAADeans List and Education Scholarship, Eugene, OR
2003 Philip Haley Johnson Education Scholarship, Eugene OR
2000 Maude Kerns Education Scholarship, Eugene, OR
Publications
SAM Blog & Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Blog, 2019
Vanguard Seattle, April 23, 2013, review by Claire Reiner
