I began drawing people before I was in the first grade, and my fascination with the human form has continued. My second-grade teacher liked some of my drawings well enough to save them for years, after which she gave them to my mother. In Franklin Elementary School in a suburb of Pittsburgh, I was highly encouraged by some of my primary teachers as well as some of the art teachers, who taught my class once a week. My fifth-grade art teacher, Miss McConnell, tapped me as one of the two students from Allegheny County to attend the Carnegie Art Museum Saturday classes, and I still savor that experience. As an art major at Florida State University, figure drawing was my favorite class, and I later studied portrait work.

After painting with a plein-air oil painting group in Provence in 2000 and 2001, my focus shifted to landscapes and my style evolved toward impressionism. The paintings of Monet, Sisley, Pizzarro, and also Wolf Kahn have influenced my work. Oil has been and is my favorite medium; however, I paint also with acrylic and watercolor.

I prefer pleasant interesting themes in my work, and animals and people have rejoined the expanding assemblage of subjects in my paintings.