I grew up in the rugged Appalachian mountains of southern West Virginia’s coalfields. My family moved quite often due to a retired military father with traveling in his blood. To keep me focused, mother made sure I always had a sketchbook and pencils, drawing was always a passion. After receiving the Governors Award for Visual Arts, I attended the Art Institute in Pittsburgh and then the Cleveland Institute of Art where I was introduced to some of the most inspiring art from Anselm Kiefer’s textured monumental landscapes to William Bouguereau’s exquisite classical figures, Egon Shiele’s line work and sexual tension, Sargent’s painterly realism to Rothko’s dynamic abstract field studies or George Bellows visceral paintings, it was a time of discovery.     

          It wasn’t until moving from the industrial city of Cleveland to Arizona with the beauty of the Sonoran desert that my palette brightened up. Working as a scenic artist and a technical director for a children’s theater by day and painting by night, I managed to keep a few paintings a month supplied to my Scottsdale gallery.  It was there that the spanish dancers really took off. They have been an on again off again love affair for me.  I enjoy working in a series, it gives me time to explore and refine techiques and ideas.  I’ve shown in galleries in Arizona, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina.