HILL SERIES: Returning to my early roots of mark-making, this series of mixed media sketches and paintings depicting hills visualize my journey as a maker and all the barriers, pitfalls, plateaus, challenges and little successes I encounter each day.  Narrative in nature, the hill started as a device that would help visualize reaching higher acclaim as an artist. Illustrated broken ladders, empty elevator shafts, ropes too short and stairs that go nowhere, symbolize the artistic explorations, efforts, employment and education that have seemed to fall short when reaching for higher heights within my field. As the process evolved, ironically the collaged paper elements of my day to day activities began to speak more of my accomplishments to date, in the end forming hills beneath me.