About
Click to browse the galleries
I grew up in the suburbs of New York, on the Long Island Sound. I'm the second of six children of actors Thomas A. Carlin and Frances Sternhagen. Miraculously, they managed to put each of us through college.
For the past three+ decades I've made my living as an actor in theatre, television, film, and audiobook narration. Also – ever since childhood – drawing, painting, collage, making greeting cards and various other crafty forays have provided unique satisfaction and profound solace. I always felt the gift of any art supplies to be a kind of private treasure.
When I relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1990's, I brought my "art closet" with me. But it was rarely visited as I focused on the acting career, and got married and became a mother. Eventually, career frustrations (plus the enticement of a Groupon discount!) helped me be willing to take an art class, and there I found that much energy and passion awaited. I took the plunge into OIL PAINTING, a medium I'd always been curious about and a little intimidated by. In class, I did not choose the subject/lesson, I neither prepared nor cleaned up – I just showed up and took direction. It was extremely helpful to suspend judgment and keep moving forward through each step of the process for the duration of the 2 hour class. I was usually sweating at the end!
Within a couple of months, I began to invest in my own materials so I could experiment between classes... I'd always looked and seen with the eyes of an artist, but now I feel I have the power to chronicle relationships of color, dynamic episodes of shadow and light, Things just Being Themselves in a particular moment.
Recently I've been inspired to prioritize the making of art; it feels related to Original Love. And I feel an urgency to capture some local sights that are changing/disappearing at an alarming rate.
I cannot overstate the encouragement of family and friends and Facebook. Primo rocket fuel for me!