Having grown up in a small New England town that was isolated from much of the world, Turner won her first art show at age twelve, for a drawing of her grandparent’s home in Maine. Through her teen years, she continued to draw while studying ballet and modern dance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Turner moved west to attend college where she studied dance and the social services, and earned a Bachelors and a Master’s Degree from the University of Utah. She also studied art and sculpture at the University of California at Berkeley. As she solidified her own visual style and voice, Turner was influenced by Robert Colescott, Gene Gentry McMahon, and Jacob Lawrence.

Turner’s art is held in the public collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, DC, the University of Washington Medical Center-Roosevelt, in Seattle, Washington, and the Portland Contemporary Arts Gallery, in Oregon. Her work has been exhibited in many cities and countries including; New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Montreal, as well as; Scotland, China, Bulgaria and Denmark. Turner continues to exhibit regularly in the Pacific Northwest.

She has taught and lectured in the social sciences and more recently about art, at the University of Utah, Bellevue College, University of Washington, Lane Community College, Seattle Pacific University, and the Museum of Northwest Art.