Hello, I'm an artist...

I spent much of my childhood at my grandparents’ house. My single mother was young and restless, often out with friends and dates on the weekends, and I was usually left in their care. What might have felt like absence instead became a gift. My grandparents’ home was where I felt most grounded, most seen.

 

My grandmother was my anchor… warm, steady, endlessly supportive. My grandfather, on the other hand, was a quiet giant in my world. He was a respected cartoonist, publishing five books and holding a weekly placement in the Sunday comics of the Dallas Times Herald. Art wasn’t just something he did… it was simply part of the air in that house. Watching him work, I absorbed the idea that creativity was both serious and joyful, disciplined and playful.

 

As my grandfather’s health declined, my uncle left art college and stayed at home to care for them. He would eventually become a designer, spending his entire career working in that field until retirement. Even my grandmother had a creative spirit, building miniature castles from cardboard scrap and Elmers glue. 

 

Between my grandfather’s illustration and my uncle’s design work, creativity surrounded me. Art felt safe. It felt inherited. I believed, even as a child, that it was in my veins.

 

I drew constantly… Spaceships, characters, abstract shapes… anything and everything. I sketched on notebooks, folders, scraps of paper, and whatever else I could get my hands on. Teachers regularly told me to stop, yet somehow always made an exception. Drawing followed me all the way through high school, less a hobby than a compulsion.

 

I continued studying art throughout school and into college, excelling in fine arts, but eventually settling on graphic design as my major. While I explored many disciplines, drawing remained my true passion. I took painting classes as well, but at the time I struggled with subject matter and direction. Eventually, I set painting aside… something I wouldn’t return to for decades.

 

When I finally came back to painting later in life, something had shifted. Years of experience, observation, and award-winning design work had given me what I once lacked: perspective and something to say. Digital painting and retouch gave me unrealized skills… I discovered I didn’t just enjoy painting… I had a genuine ability for it. Even more importantly, I now had no shortage of subject matter to explore.

 

Today, I find deep joy in pulling an image out of a blank canvas, one brushstroke at a time. For me, art is life, and life is endlessly generous with inspiration. My work moves fluidly between abstraction, portraiture, still life, and landscape. Much like my career in design, I explore this medium from every angle, pushing its possibilities and following curiosity wherever it leads.

​

I invite you to see the world as I see it… to experience what my eyes envision, shaped by memory, imagination, and a lifelong relationship with art.