Artist Statement

Known to family and friends as Gerry, the artist and poet originated the gift poem series, Peace Leaves, for Portland, Oregon’s Hoyt Arboretum art festival. Drawing upon what nature teaches, the poems are meant to inspire, remind us of our shared humanity, and help us to live lovingly in a changing world. 

The poems are letterpressed offerings, sometimes in limited editions, using papers from many Asian countries as well as locally made papers from Oblation in Portland.  

The Oblation paper Peace Leaves are portable and perfect for receiving watercolors; Gerry often sketches on them with watercolor pencils, pens, and brushes while kayaking off Orcas Island, on the Willamette River, or while strolling along the many rivers and lakes where her husband and son fly fish. Recent stays on the Maine coast & Vermont have offered further inspiration. 

For over twenty years, Gerry developed and taught in high school writing programs and later helped to found the low residency MFA in Writing program at Pacific University.  Her poetry has been recognized by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English, the Oregon Poetry Association, and Poets Against the War.

Gerry’s poetry chapbook, Mouth Toward Sky, was published in 2018 by Finishing Line Press. She has also created a limited edition hand sewn children’s book, Child, You Are.

Gerry is mother to a now young adult son, Nathan, and is active in peace and justice work.

She states:

“I am a poet and teacher witnessing in a changing world, ex-
ploring my roots as a fourth generation Oregonian and living my role as steward for a fifth, mining a familiar northwest landscape for metaphor and meaning.”