My Story
When people ask how long I’ve been an artist, I say truthfully “always.” I still have an essay I wrote in 4th grade, outlining my plans to grow up, develop my art skills, and sell my paintings for a living.
I am the oldest of five children, and I’m lucky to come from a fun-loving family who value self-education, innovation, and entrepreneurial enterprise. My parents had the foresight and devotion to encourage my creativity. As a child, I had a constant supply of paper, crayons, tape, scissors, etc. My paternal grandparents were art collectors, and I spent many happy days in their beautiful home, surrounded by original artwork.
When I was 12, I became more serious about painting, experimenting with acrylics and oils, which are now my media of choice. That year I sold a painting for the first time, to one of my schoolteachers for $40.
It was a painting of a woman with a baby on her back and a basket in her hands, harvesting tomatoes in a field. That teacher was the first of many friends, family members, and strangers to purchase my work. Today the group I lovingly call “My Collectors” is large, diverse, and scattered throughout the country.
As a young adult, for awhile I thought I would end up as a journalist or creative writer. So, I began college majoring in English writing, but after a year changed my major to art—even then I could feel that art was my true calling and doing anything else would make me unhappy. In 2005, I received my BA from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, graduating at the top of my class with honors in the field of Studio Art.
Since then, I’ve begun my career in earnest, improving not only my art skills, but my business skills as well. I’ve worked as an art instructor at Anne Arundel Community College, and I am involved in the Baltimore art scene. My work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in galleries, arts centers, and alternative venues.
I’m currently represented by art galleries in several U.S. states. I operate my art studio from home, where I paint portraits by commission, colorful flowers, and vivid, dramatic landscapes.
My hobbies include organic gardening, contra dancing, white-water rafting and hiking. I’m a voracious reader (of both fiction and non-fiction) and a world traveler. I have visited places in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Southern Asia. My artwork is profoundly influenced by memories of the places I have been. In addition to my specialty, painting, I’m also skilled in jewelry design, photography and pottery.
I currently make my home in Maryland with my husband, Kevan, who was my high school sweetheart, and our dog and cat.
Artist's Statement on nature paintings
Nature themes are prominent in my artwork. Whether I am painting a rolling mountain landscape, a magnificent tree in full bloom, or a violent night-time storm, my paintings are always about nature’s exhilarating beauty and the awe it inspires in me. I work from life, from photographs, and from my imagination, sometimes combining all these things into one image, using elements of both realism and abstraction. My goal is to combine vivid color, light, composition, and content to create sincere, spiritual, lasting images that invoke the excitement we humans can feel at being a small part of something incredibly big and interconnected. My art is an exercise in wonder and gratitude.
My media of choice are acrylic and oil colors on canvas. I tend to work rather quickly, which helps me get everything out on the canvas the way I imagine it. My processes range from careful and precise photorealism to extremely loose abstraction, but my work always remains representative of things in the physical world.
Artist's Statement on portraits
My goal in painting a portrait is not only to capture a person's likeness, but also to capture that lively spark of personality which is hidden in the eyes, the tilt of the head, or the subtleties of facial expression-the little things that make a person unique. My first portraits were of those dear to my heart: my family. With every portrait I paint, I imagine my subject is a beloved member of my own family, and I take great care with every detail. The same goes for my portraits of dogs and cats—any pet owner can tell you that you don’t have to be human to have an endearing personality. My natural affection for others is what drives me to paint people and animals.
