I arrived to teach at Evergreen in 1973. 

The spirit at the college then was exhilarating, full of hope and enthusiasm. I was to be part of creating a new way to teach and learn. Testing and grades and categories for study would not guide planning and curriculum. Instead, interdisciplinary studies would focus on themes agreed upon by faculty teams. My work as a drawing teacher was no longer isolated in an art room somewhere but now an integral part of the study of literature and music, science and psychology. It was daunting to collaborate with a team for just about everything but also a kind of academic heaven.

While this was going on, I was living on the west side of Olympia and would have to move because my house was to be torn down to make space for what is now Capital Mall. I met people from town and others at faculty get-togethers and I slowly learned how to live in a place where rain and gray skies did not mean gloom as it did when I lived in New York. 

In those early years, Susan Christian arrived to see if she might like it here. I got to know Angela Stepherson, Susie Jones, Donna Portnoff (all wives of newly-hired faculty). When Susan discovered that the top floor of the Mottman building at Capital and 4th (a building with quite a history) was available, we made it into workspaces for us all. This was a time when women were reading feminist texts and questioning their relationships with men. 

As an out lesbian I was spared this review, but I witnessed intense outpourings of anger when the women in our newly made workspaces found new language to describe their prescribed roles as married women. Wild expressive paintings were made on the walls and lively discussions were the norm when we met.

Years later, I experimented with a variety of studio spaces, including sharing a studio with Cappy Thompson and Susan Christian at her Oysterhouse home and factory and then working in a small room above what was the only Chinese restaurant in Olympia (which I had to vacate almost immediately because of the smoke and smell of cooking). After that I moved into a storefront on Capitol Way (where the senior center is now) newly vacated by Don Freas who made furniture. Cappy lived and worked in the adjoining storefront where she made absolutely majestic stained glass windows. 

I used my space there to make paintings on paper and as a seminar space for my students at Evergreen. I was concerned about a town/gown division and tried to use the town itself as subject matter for students to either draw or write about. We ate lunch together at the Rainbow Tavern, and there was always coffee and donuts in my storefront/studio/classroom.