Art has always been a vital part of my life. In the early seventies, my dad, a painter and art educator, designed and built a home in Michigan for our family to grow in a creative environment. My strongest memories growing up were living in a beautiful home that was surrounded by trees and overlooking a pond. With my mom, dad, two brothers and our cat Silky we were always involved in some sort of creative endeavor. Since my dad was a teacher we traveled every summer. We would drive our green Dodge van across the United States, sometimes to California, Texas or Colorado. On our trips my dad would photograph the landscape, some old rusty truck in the middle of a field or a store front that he found interesting. When we returned home, he would process the film and each fall and winter he would paint the images he found most inspiring. The process of converting a photograph to a painting goes far beyond tracing the lines of an image it is capturing the essence of that place that makes it a work of art.

Living in Michigan with its four seasons offers a great variety of inspiring ideas to paint from as well. Spring with its beautiful red buds and tulips, summer's glorious lakes and ponds, fall's orange sugar maple leaves, and winter's white wonderland. I find a lot of forests or pastoral landscapes in Michigan that inspire me to paint. I consider myself a realist and impressionistic painter. Bouncing between the two, I love to create visible brush strokes and textures that allow two different ways to enjoy the painting. Up close they are impressionistic, but look very realistic from a distance. Travel is still a great part of my life.

{View artwork}