It’s my ever-circulating question – what makes an artist an artist? Where is that fine line we cross to seriously call ourselves an “artist” instead of a “painter” or a “photographer”? The answers are elusive and seem relevant one day, not so much the next.

I was never what you’d call an artsy kid growing up. I was too serious and responsible to allow myself the luxury of pursuing something that​ didn’t have defined boundaries, specific goals and quantifiable rewards. And then I moved to Sea Ranch.

Walking the trails through the redwoods, hiking through old growth forests, the feel and smell of salt water on my skin as I walked along the shoreline – it all changed me. It burrowed into my soul and opened up windows into a world I never knew existed. I chucked the corporate me right out those windows and allowed myself to see and feel and experience the world around me as it was in that moment. I put aside my preconceived notions of how things should be and just let what was flow over me.

I began taking photographs of the immense beauty all around me, mainly because there was so much and I have a really terrible memory. I wanted to capture the sites, but I also found I was capturing the feelings and sensations that went along with it. That sense of completeness – the visual and the sensory, is what makes my photographs so special. I hope you, as the viewer, feel my photographs as well as experience the beauty that is the Mendonoma Coast.

Today, I express my artistic sense in a different way. My husband and I moved to Seattle in 2017 to be closer to our grandchildren. My son had opened a bakery, and I decided to go back to school (in my 60s) and earn a degree in culinary arts. I spent two years learning, absorbing, practicing and tasting, and now I feel confident to call myself a pastry chef. I still put all that creative energy I gathered on the coast into my creations. I love pairing flavors and textures in my pastries and get tremendous satisfaction when I see a customer enjoying my work, this time by eating it instead of just viewing it!