“Before leaving my parents home to attend a university, I travelled and lived in many military bases. After receiving my MFA at the University of California at Los Angeles, I travelled on to Europe, visiting museums and then living on a farm in southern France. It was this European venture that gave me two important directions in my subsequent life. For one, I fell for the narrative neo-classical art that I saw in London, coupled with furthering my reverence for the master classics. Living on this farm in the early seventies, gave form to where I often still find poetry and beauty. The country life done by hand, where the human touch had everything to do with rustic warmth and authenticity. Following this adventure, I returned to California, and eventually settled in the wooden hills down a long dirt road north of San Francisco. I farmed by hand, following that French inspiration to beautiful country living, raised a family and illustrated children's books and historical novel book covers. My style continued to refine and become more "classical" as my fascination with naturalism continued, and I found that I was slowly gravitating towards fine art and just wanting to paint for the love of painting. In my desire to make this transition, I found the Florence Academy of Art, where I have been centered for the past nine years, first studying, and now teaching. Working in the epicentre of the Italian Renaissance of humanism in the arts, has been an inexhaustible source for inspiration and continuing to learn to improve my art, and my person. I have been living in the countryside outside of Florence for the past two years. I am finding the other end of the circle as I am back to growing my own food and cultivating flowers. A lot of my subjects for my paintings are home-grown. My living space feeds me with ideas for my painted images and my painting provides me with an environment to work and live in. My figurative work is continuing to find its was back home in narration. There is always this aspect of me that feels a story behind an image, and I will continue to explore this direction. My spirit is very drawn to a "classical" way of form as defined by light and values. The shapes and rhythms of light are what expresses the emotion and design in my work and how I see. Nature is the ultimate teacher, and to understand her through my contemplative type of work has provided me with a road that never ends.”