Welcome to my website:
I’m an award-winning author, storyteller, artist, and educator. My compelling call-to-action in both visual and literary arts explores color, texture, relationships, loss, redemption, and transformation. My fine art is exhibited worldwide and online. My current printmaking work is abstract, while my photography is realistic.
My professional personal narrative storytelling inspires audiences in person and online. My true essays and poems are published in books, anthologies, literary journals, and online storytelling journals. In tandem, I’m a Poet-in-Residence in schools with Silvermine Art Partners and a Guest Lecturer at universities across the country, teaching feature writing/personal narrative essays in Journalism, Public Relations, and New Media Departments.
News Flash
April 2024: I am grateful to have received seven awards from the Connecticut Press Club Professional Communications 2023 Contest – First Place, Second Place, Third Place (2), Honorable Mention (3)
Featured Works
Beautiful true stories from writers around the world (including me) are in the new book “Clarity,” published by The Pathfinders Collective. E-books, soft and hard covers can be purchased here and all proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood. My story is “A Devoted Chamber of My Heart Opens.”
Listen to me being interviewed by dynamic communicator, Denise DiGrigoli, on “Mav’s Coffee Clarity” podcast. Tune in to hear an unrehearsed, unscripted, unedited, inspiring dose of creativity and clarity here. Watch it on YouTube here.
Awards
- 2024 Storytelling World Resource Award | “Overcoming Fear with Help From the Whales” published in ANIMALS: Personal Tales of Encounters With Spirit Animals by Sacred Stories Publishing
- Winner in the 2023 National Federation of Press Women Professional Communications Contest | Web and Social Media – Personal Website: First Place
- Winner in the 2023 National Federation of Press Women Professional Communications Contest | Writing – Personal Essay: Honorable Mention
- Winner in the 2023 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Photographer-Writer: First and Third Place
- Winner in the 2023 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Speech: Second Place and Honorable Mention
- Winner in the 2023 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Speech: Second and Third Place, Honorable Mention
- Winner in the 2023 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Creative Verse (Single Poem): Honorable Mention
- Winner in the 2023 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Blog (Personal): Honorable Mention
- Winner in the 2022 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Personal Essay: First Place
- Winner in the 2022 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Personal Website: First Place
- Winner in the 2022 Connecticut Press Club Communications Contest | Speeches: Second and Third Place
Visual Storytelling
Connecticut Press Club Award Winner Third Place – Speeches: My 2022 PechaKucha presentation, “Art Saved My Life: Journey of a Lifetime” is published on the international platform. Please be advised that it is a powerful discussion with adult content about healing and transformation. It’s 6min/40sec with the spoken word and images. View and listen here.
My 2021 PechaKucha visual story “Creativity is the Mother of Reinvention.” View and listen on the global website here.
“Awesome and Awe-inspiring PechaKucha. Your story is so powerful and the images are amazing.”
from a 2022 PechaKucha visual storytelling viewer
(More testimonials)
Writing
Connecticut Press Club Award Winner First Place – Personal Essay: I write personal narrative non-fiction essays and poems. I am published in books and anthologies. Most recently, I’m a contributing author in Animals: Personal Tales of Encounters with Spirit Animals published by Sacred Stories Publishing. My story is on page 133, “Overcoming Fear With Help From the Whales.” Available at your favorite bookstore or online.
~ Darien Library, Darien, CT asked me to create and give a presentation on promoting yourself as a writer, you can watch it and take notes here.
Art
My clay monotypes are featured in the Brookfield Craft Center Invitational exhibition, “Views From a Matrix.” I am one of eight selected Connecticut Printmakers in the show.
Plus, I am creating a one-woman show as a large multi-media performance art piece that I will be taking on the road. It’s about losing 50-years worth of my original art in a flood right before my art retrospective, the piece explores loss, redemption, and transformation.
Three of my lithographs and engravings were juried into the “Responding to the Overturn of ROE V WADE Anthropology of Motherhood” virtual exhibition. You can view this powerful artist call to action here. I am honored to have my art included. While I created the prints several years ago, their powerful messages resonate today.
~ Watch and listen to my Gallery Talk at the Carriage Barn Arts Center, Spectrum Contemporary Juried Art Exhibition, New Canaan, CT here.
~ Check out my art video essay for the Bridgeport, CT Public Schools, Arts Count Day, here.
~ Be inspired by watching my video about my creative process of making clay monoprints here.
