I have heard that if a person is unsure about what interest or career to pursue she should try to remember her earliest memories. Although the times in my life when I seemed to have lost my focus were few and short lived, it couldn't have been easier to find my way back. I've had a mind for art (almost exclusively) since I could think. When I was small I thought the most fascinating people in the world were people who could paint portraits, (I still do) and I knew I wanted to to be one. So, on my own, I set up a little studio in my bedroom and painted a portrait of my grandfather when I was 14 (that's not my grandfather in the painting to the left .. it's Picasso). I read and studied everything I could on painting. Shortly, the commissions came pouring in. It has been an off-and- on quest for improvement and mastery ever since.

Although I knew that most of the great masters (even Picasso) had spent some time in structured art academies geared toward realism and technical proficiency, schools like that were far away, rare and not encouraged. Realism was not the ideal during my formative years, and I felt like a dinosaur. College is where I hoped to find myself as an artist. Instead, it felt like a solitary "one step forward two steps back" process toward a hazy goal.

So here I am, full circle, glad to be alive in a time when technical mastery, clarity and truth are celebrated. I still paint from my heart and continue to express myself. But now with a greater understanding of time-honored skills plus a greater mastery of contemporary procedures and materials. I am grateful to have found such freedom!

All work on this site is representative of this newly re-visited time of study, beginning 1997 to my current work. I am constantly uploading new paintings. I do believe our greatest purpose is to help others, and I have been fortunate to have found generous and excellent excellent teachers who seem to feel the same in my region (see my resume), and at Studio Incamminati, Philadelphia, PA, where I continue to study. I am grateful to have this opportunity to learn and grow and for my own students with whom I get to share.