Like most kids I began to draw at an early age, and I took to it as well as most. Drawings of big lop-sided heads, later with teeth, occupied my formative years. My earliest portraits were of celebrities from my childhood, including Cher and Flip Wilson, taken straight from the television screen. I also had an interest in teaching from the day I learned to read and write. My first pupil was a small, shaggy black dog named Mitzi, who was my grandparent’s beloved pet. In an attempt to share my knowledge with her (I believed in earnest that she too could learn to read and write with proper training) I inadvertently taught her a new trick; to shake.
It wasn’t until several floundering attempts to pass my community college classes that I took an oil painting class one summer at someone’s suggestion. I had not given art any serious consideration, and certainly not as a major, until my success in that singular class. From then on I was hooked, and I was motivated to be successful in all of my classes each semester. One afternoon a recruiter was on campus signing up students to enroll at CSU Sacramento (Sac State), so I signed up and was later accepted.
I went on to earn a BA in Studio Art from Sac State, and after numerous teaching gigs, from working with the developmentally disabled to incarcerated adults, and after much procrastination, I earned an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. In-between-time I attended classes at The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, as well. I currently teach studio and art appreciation classes at American River College in Sacramento, and at Sierra College in Rocklin. I visit art galleries and museums on a regular basis, in addition to viewing work online, and I am involved in the local arts scene in various ways. I exhibit my paintings and drawings locally and abroad whenever I am invited, or have the opportunity to do so. I have participated in several collaborative projects, and I have formally discussed my work, from thematic interests to process related topics, in various educational settings.
