When you first meet Molly you feel like she has been your best friend your whole life. She is one of those rare people that make you feel instantly welcome. I wondered long about how she achieves this, but I think it’s the hours she spends in the studio working with fire and wax.  There’s an honesty to her life and work that can rarely be found elsewhere.  Because of this, you don’t feel Molly is in a competition with other artists. The demanding nature of her medium is all the competition she needs. It’s through this spirit that Molly’s work has flourished as well as the work of any artist she invites to join her. 

In 2000, Molly and her husband Dave began hosting salons* in their restored 19^th century home.  She invites musicians, poets, writers to join her on a stage especially built by her husband Dave who also generously contributes his own incredible home brewed stouts and ales. Such guests have included the NW band Amelia, poet Scott Poole, authors Marc Acito, Cai Emmons, and Michael Rips.  When Molly was invited to show in New York, she brought a poet and the band, Amelia, with her.  

Molly is a social alchemist, someone who doesn’t mind doing the hard work, clearing the path, then inviting others to join her, someone who believes in bringing people together to create a greater good.  Just look at her encaustic paintings long enough, you’ll notice under the first layer of wax are endless shifting sub layers that subtlety contribute to the whole. Each piece is like a whole gallery of translucent paintings laid on top of each other and all have to get along.  So it is with Molly’s belief in daily generosity, layers upon layers of collaborative friendships go into creating her work, the work of others and the substance of her life.

                                                                     Scott Poole, Poet and author of Hiding From Salesmen and The Cheap Seats

*There is a rich family history of hosting salons.  It was a surprise to Molly when she discovered, after several years of hosting these gatherings, that her great grandmother, Mary Porter Sesnon, was devoted to the same practice.  Mary (or May) kept a scrapbook filled with poems, drawings, and paintings which revealed that she had also hosted artists’ salons, in Monterey Bay, California in the early 1900’s.  The guests included notable California Bohemians, patrons, and dignitaries (Herbert Hoover was in attendance) who took part in festive parties that went on for days, celebrating both art and community.