About Me

I grew up in rural Ohio and left sometime around 1987. Los Angeles became my home for the next seventeen years. I had many creative jobs there before I took up painting.  I worked at a thriving art publishing company.  ...and met many successful traditional artists. 

Chase Chen inspired me with his talent, generously encouraged me to paint and--  painted me too.  I still have the Indian print skirt! 

It would be several years before I applied myself to painting.  In the meantime, I finished a BA in Studio Art and spent several years doing 3D character modelling and animation for video games and movies.

(LEFT)   Painting murals at the Chaplin-DeMille estate, Los Feliz, CA
(MIDDLE)  I taught a beginning drawing class for children.
(RIGHT)   Me and my old boss, art dealer and publisher Basil Collier, Culver City, CA

Presenting pottery designs
to Walmart buyer in Bentonville, AR

I designed pottery that was mass produced and sold in Walmarts everywhere.  ...all the while vowing to get back to painting someday. 

Playa del Rey, CA sometime in the mid-90's

My first year making traditional art fulltime resulted in many awards at local shows.  Some of my work was published as posters and I had a steady influx of portrait commissions.  Back then I was using a combination of color pencil and watercolor.  

Signing giclees for SAKS

One of my lily paintings was reproduced as a giclee and sold in the Saks Fifth Ave catalogue.  I also had a gallery-slash-live-in space in San Pedro, CA and enjoyed opening my studio once a month for artwalks. 


Meanwhile back home in Ohio my sister had started a family.  This was huge news.  Suddenly after seventeen years away, I knew it was time to go back home.

My nephews are the bee's knees.

There are many upsides to living in Northern Ohio.  I get to watch my nephews grow up.  I (finally) got lucky in love, better late than never right? While on vacation with family we surprised everyone by getting married on a beach in Pawley's Island SC. He's my rock.  His two sons from a previous marriage add much joy to my life and he dotes on my cats.    

Doting in progress.

We live in a colonial duplex in a historic district of Cleveland.  After having rented apartments all my adult life living in a house we own feels luxurious! I use the upstairs North facing kitchen as my studio. It's by far the BEST studio I ever had. It was in this house that I became inspired by the Daily Painters Movement to try painting in oils. I've never looked back.



Painting has become my obsession for which there is no remedy and no end. The rest of my story is still unfolding.  This blog is a visual catalogue of my art and progress as a painter.  More importantly it keeps me connected to people who are interested in my journey or are on similar journeys of their own. 

Please visit my website to read my "official" bio, exhibit history and view more of my art.