I have been an artist from the first time I first held a crayon. I painted my first oil painting at 15 and it was in a show at our local library. I studied art in High School earning my Regents Diploma in Art, the first year it was an option offered by the New York Board of Education. I attended Fashion Institute of Technology where I majored in apparel design and fell in love with life drawing. Shortly after graduation, I was married, and we moved from New York to Colorado. It was the seventies, and I did what I could to satisfy my creative urges. I sewed up a couch, made macrame wall hangings, drew a bit, painted in watercolor, and grew a jungle of plants. My husband was in graduate school, and I worked as a circulation manager for a local newspaper. My time in corporate America was in sales, marketing, and communications where I used my artistic inclinations as much as I could.
By that time, I was in Southern California and a mother. I decided to better myself with a higher education and create a career. I earned a PhD in Psychology and started a successful business - “Social Media Made Simple” - coaching small business owners on how to promote their business using social media.
After my divorce I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I met my partner, finally retired and our house had a studio, so I was able to spend my time painting. My partner was friends with a Master Portraitist, Leo Neufeld. Leo offered to help me fill in the gaps in my art education, teaching me the finer points of oil painting, he encouraged me to continue with my painting.
Sadly, last year my partner passed away. I decided it was time to live near my only child Jennifer. So here I am making a new life in Memphis and looking forward to building friendships and community. I have a studio and a sunroom, so I get to have a house full of plants again and to paint.