I was lucky enough to be born into a family that valued art. Art supplies and art books were always available and museum visits were common occurrences. As a result I loved to both look at art and to try and make it myself.

I fell in love with life drawing when I took my first class in the summer after I graduated from high school. I continued drawing throughout my studies at the University of California where I majored in Design, and I still try to draw the figure from life once a week. It is a practice I never tire of.

I started painting in oils about ten years ago. I have taken workshops with Sherrie McGraw, Jeff Watts, Peggi Kroll Roberts and Dreama Tolle Perry, among others. I occasionally paint still lifes or landscapes but my favorites subjects are still the human figure and the portrait. I prefer to work from life, but make use of photographs when that isn't possible.

I am less interested in "self-expression", something that I think occurs naturally anyway during the art making process, and more interested in expressing something essential about the unique individual spirit and humanity of my subject. My hope is that the viewer will feel that spirit and be moved by it.