Born in 1949 in Northern California she was shaped by a dual heritage of Mexican and English/Irish background and a childhood marked by polio. These influences contributed to a preoccupation with solitary activities and interior dimensions. Making art, dreaming, and writing poetry were augmented by telepathic conversations with screech owls that lived in the 100 foot Eucalyptus tree which grew in her backyard. This and other early Shamanic/psychic experiences eventually led her out of organized religion and into the pagan community in her early twenties where she became a worshiper of the Goddess and the Divine Feminine which profoundly informed her art.