I was born in Montreal to freshly-immigrated Latvian parents. I grew up amid a hodge-podge of artists and immigrants in my family’s picture-framing and art supply store. It was there I picked up various skills like glass-cutting, matting and framing, as well as being exposed to a range of styles, techniques, and materials of art-making.

In my twenties I found myself in Portland, Maine where I applied my glass-cutting skills to stained glass. Self-taught, I put myself through college by selling my work at craft fairs and to stores under my then business name “The Celebration of Light.” It was also in Portland that I met David, who I would soon enough happily follow to Vermont and marry.

In the meanwhile though, upon graduation, I set my glass aside to pursue a Masters degree in Architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle. I worked as an intern and then as a licensed architect here in Vermont for a number of years, but it eventually became clear that two demanding careers plus a growing family was not working well for us. I stepped back from architecture and gradually returned to glass, where I could set my own pace, be my own boss, and happily work on something from start to finish. I am never so grounded as when I am in the middle of making something.