I love drawing. Charcoal, graphite, pen and ink.The variations in line quality, shading light to dark, structure lines showing through form or the feel of a ball point pen circling form, expressing gesture in one long curved line…

There has never been a time when pulling out a sketchbook and drawing didn’t heal my soul. Born in California, moving around the country and returning to the South Coast, drawing has been my joy and solace. I always knew I wanted to be an artist. From formal to informal studies, interning in high school with the late, great graphic artist Rick Tharp, whose award winning work is stored at the Smithsonian, to a BA in fine art from UC Santa Barbara, I’ve enjoyed learning in diverse backgrounds. After a year studying illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco I worked creating greeting cards and stationery for American Greetings and a few boutique publishing companies. I also attended workshops with Mark English, Brian Blood, Nancy Guzik and Marcia Burt, all of them adding immensely to my understanding of and love of art.

But there was something missing. I could never put a finger on it, it was so illusive. I thought I knew how to draw. I thought I knew how to paint. Thinking that I had reached the end of the journey made it possible to fall completely off the path. And fall for a very long time. It was finding an atelier that introduced me to the unapologetic philosophy of constant traditional practice, constant challenge and constant learning that led me to plant my feet back onto the path I loved. Learning. The pursuit of drawing, the pursuit of painting….to be a forever student as a core foundation and painting as an informed and practiced passion growing from that foundation are, for me, the pursuits that fire curiosity, intellect, challenge and the love of beauty in this rough world.

So with feet firmly replanted in practice, and the love of a joyful workday, I am looking forward to creating the drawings and paintings that come from a love of constant learning.