MY JOURNEY
I collected a unique skills set to work on global and local challenges. I spent the first 20 years of my work life in the areas of International Development, Strategic and Futures Planning, before bringing art directly into my work through focus on projects I call “social issue arts”. From the beginning I was able to simultaneously work on both local and global issues. I discovered over time that using art in otherwise technical, planning projects, accelerated learning and implementation of communities goals on all levels. I’ve been a leader in designing development projects that include the arts in collaborations with some of the poorest communities in the world…while working alongside leaders of many nations. I’ve lived and worked in Europe, Asia, Africa and in many communities across North America.
I began doing visioning work here in Colorado when Governor Dick Lamm, hired me to staff a Visioning Task force focused on “The Future of the 13 Front Range Counties”. This project was not the first, but perhaps the best of its kind in the nation. As a result of my innovative work, I moved to Washington D.C. to be Executive Director of the Congressional Institute for the Future working with the House and Senate in the US Congress.
When I discovered Congress didn’t address future issues, I left Congress and moved to Africa. There, I outfitted a truck for the bush, and in a place where there were no roads, I collaborated in an art/photography/archival project with the National Museum of Botswana to chronicle the work of Bakatla potters, perhaps the last pot makers of an old world where all storage, functional containers were made by hand and dung fired.
Eclectic and accomplished, I’m a published author, poet, photographer, painter, archivist and story teller. I bring the skill set of an artist to global issues….collaborating with organizations in developing social issues, and visioning social issue art projects. I also create more personal processes involving the arts. In a focus called Aligning with Spirit, I bring my strengths to unique art collaborations which are tailored to the needs of communities, families and individuals…many of whom are involved in transitions including retirement, illness, disability and death.
