Biography

I was born and raised in the south Chicagoland suburbs, third in a line of six offspring born to a scientist father who is fond of classical music, science fiction, and Disney, and a lovely piano-playing, singing mother who doubled as a part-time music/ English/ religion teacher in addition to orchestrating the lives of her six children and husband.

I was schooled on and gained an appreciation for the humanities from the countless museums, music concerts and community events that I was dragged to by the elder Ps.
For the most part, however, I remained a spectator of the arts, instead deciding to focus on my desire to be a teacher.

After seven years as a teacher of students with behavior problems and dealing with a problem laden public school system, I took a leave of absence.

A community education oil painting course (though a failed attempt) and a sit-in of an intro to art class at the local community college piqued my curiosity of painting.

Pretty early on i did a painting with black & white and just fell in love with the simplicity and starkness.

For the past ten years now I have been painting predominately portraiture and figurative work with black & white oil. I recently began to draw.

I have had shows in both Gainesville and Chicago.