Dottie earned a B.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in art. She married, raised a family and was involved in everything but art for many years. In 1967, Dottie got her MSSW from the University of Tennessee and worked in mental health until her retirement in 1988. She had family and community commitments until well after retirement. In 1993 time opened up and she jumped into the opening by returning to her love of art.

Largely self-taught, she took some classes at the Memphis College of Art and started painting. After a cautious start, Dottie has shown in local, regional, national, open and juried shows. She has also had several one person shows. Dottie is a member of Artists’ Link and Memphis/ Germantown Art League and has been represented by several Memphis galleries.

Dottie makes strong use of color and sharp contrast, which are as important as the content in giving her work its impact. Her botanical and still life paintings reflect her awe of the natural world, as do her paintings of the Southwest – an inspiration from her first visit there. No longer traveling to the Southwest, she now focuses on her still life and nature paintings. She works in water color and acrylics, and she sometimes enhances the work with the use of interesting papers as well as gold and copper leaf.