I have been admiring & creating art for as long as I can remember. My maternal grandmother had a small, pure white marble replica of Michelangelo’s “Pieta” and every Saturday that I would visit, I would carefully clean any dust that collected in the intricate folds of “fabric”, in awe of the seemingly luminous quality of the stone as well as the varied texture, from skin to fabric.
The educators in my early childhood paved the way for my artistic self-confidence & helped to encourage me to continue with it throughout my secondary education. I realized by high school that I had a propensity towards realism and was truly a painter at heart.
I obtained my degree in Art Education and began what would be an extremely fulfilling lifestyle of teaching & creating.
As an art teacher I found I had plenty of time to explore my own figurative art style as well as work as a freelance artist for east coast based “living art” company, TEN31 Productions, Inc.
As TEN31’s Principle Painter, I worked to create a variety of costumes, props, stage pieces and even to duplicate famous “living” paintings.
When not working as a free-lance artist or teaching art, I was busy in my home studio creating works that exemplified my love for the human form, usually creating anonymous self portraits; as I was always available when the time or energy was found.
With a full life of art and teaching, I still felt something was missing, so I moved across the country to Los Angeles, met the love of my life, got married and now work in my home as a full-time wife, step-mother & artist.
Most of my commissioned artwork consists of colored-pencil portraits of children & animals, but my passion still lies in oil paintings; mainly of the nude figure but experimenting with other elements, such as light-cast pattern, fabric & water; and how they play off the contours of the human form.
No doubt the small Pieta that my grandmother revered so much had an early effect on me and my love for the Renaissance. In a modern world of shock art & digital manipulation, I pride myself on the old-world appreciation of natural beauty personified in paint.
