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Artist Statement
I was lucky to be raised by parents that encouraged my creativity, love of nature and inquisitiveness. All my siblings are creative and we are all inspired by nature. My sister Fran Hart is a visionary artist who lives in Honaunau on the big island of Hawaii. Both our creative works have a spiritual basis. My brother Roger Berrier creates beauty through plants as part of his work at the Norfolk, Virginia cemeteries. My son, Douglas Petranoff has just moved to El Paso, Texas and is working at the El Paso Zoo. I'm fascinated by archeology and nature and have studied the ancient cultures of the world and my art has these things as it's inspiration. Native American petroglyphs and pictographs caught my interest when I participated in a field trip in 1986 to sites in Utah. Since then, I have continued to research, record and photograph other rock art sites in Utah as well as Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. I have also visited sites in Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Baja in Mexico. Recently I have begun to visit sites in other countries besides the United States and Mexico. In July of 2000 I spent a month in Australia. In September of 2001 I visited the Paleolithic Caves in Spain. In August of 2005 I headed back to Australia - I love that country!! In May of 2006 I moved from Houston, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico. March of 2007 found me southwestern Egypt for a two week trip into the Sahara desert. It was incredible. In August of 2009 I traveled once again to Australia. This time to record rock art with David Lee in Wardaman Country although I played a very small part in the recording effort. I had an amazing experience and it has lead me to some exciting work. This year I am planning a trip to visit the rock art of Scandinavia in late summer. I'll also be heading to Utah in October for the Utah Rock Art Research Association Symposium and later on to Colorado to do some survey work in Pickett Wire Canyon. "My work is inspired by actual images made by ancient peoples. Looking for petroglyphs and pictographs is an adventure. I'm inspired by these magical images. I feel like the ancient artists are trying to communicate with us. I try to make each piece a spiritual creation as well as an artistic one." I am a member of the American Rock Art Research Association, the Colorado Rock Art Association, the Southern Nevada Rock Art Research Association, the Nevada Rock Art Foundation, the Archaeological Society of New Mexico and the Utah Rock Art Research Association. I am also the secretary of the Dona Ana Archeology Society and am serving as the archivists El Paso Archeology Society. I have also helped archeologists record sites and I've used my artistic abilities to help some with illustrations used in presentations at different symposiums. Most recently I have become a member of New Mexico's Rock Art Recording Council. Besides archaeological organizations I am a member of Artforms in Las Cruces, New Mexico and belong to the New Mexico Chapter of the Society of Layerist in Multi-media. As part of my outreach for the arts I am a member and secretary of the not-for-profit Tombaugh Gallery on South Solano in the Unitarian Universalist Church. I did my first recording in 1986 and have continued working on projects ever since. I have done recording in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Nevada and Australia. This fall I'll be working on a surveying project in Colorado. Now that I am a member of the New Mexico Rock Art Recording Council I have started working on my own projects in New Mexico. My most recent field work was in the Guadalupes. I'm currently working on a paper for the next issue of the American Indian Rock Art Journal and one for the 2011 Jornada-Mogollon Conference. |
I received a BA
in Art from Indiana University where I studied
jewelry design and silversmithing under Alma
Eikerman and Helen Shirk. More recently I took classes at th