She received her MFA from George Mason University, Virginia in 1988 then came West where she worked with the Catholic Peace Movement Pax Christi, with a ministry for homeless Native Americans and on environmental issues whilst she studied Benedictine spirituality with the sisters of St. Placid Priory. In 2010 she left a gallery partnership and is currently working on a hand-crafted artist-book memoir, “Learning from Trencadis”.