While I was in art school I held a smattering of odd jobs, childcare for a professor (3 years), food service in a Mediterranean deli and a Caribbean restaurant, and work-study in the bookstore and student services office. Since graduating from art school with a BFA in 2000 I have supported myself in a variety of ways, mostly as a teacher.

I started out as a volunteer at an after-school tutoring program where I eventually developed arts programing for elementary age students. This lead to teaching workshops at a contemporary art center and 'studio classes' at a Waldorf inspired high school in my neighborhood. Teaching in this capacity allowed me a lot of freedom to invent classes and introduce students to contemporary ideas about art. Two years out of school I received my first grant - a $3,000 installation commission. I was getting paid to make art and teach art! In 2003 I received additional grants for education projects and my own artwork, allowing me to spend more time focused on making and exhibiting work.

When I moved to San Francisco in October 2003, I started from the beginning, first as a barista in a coffee shop near my home in Potrero Hill, then as a gallery assistant, an education programs director at a non-profit, an art teacher at a public charter school in Ingelside, and finally - my current money-making occupation - as a waitress. I also teach an occasional 'refashioning' class at Stitch, a sewing workshop and will be leading a textile printing workshop at Creativity Explored in May and June, 2006. It has been a struggle to find work that (a) pays the bills - (especially in the Bay Area), (b) leaves me time and energy to make work and (c) is fulfilling. Right now working in a restaurant is giving me lots of 'a' and 'b' but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep going with so very little 'c'.