​

I am a writer who paints and a painter who writes.  I call my visual art narrative art, because it reflects stories lodged in my head; but I’m most delighted when people come up with their own stories inspired by what I’ve done.

 

The subjects that interest me are mythical, or topical, or family, or acquaintance, or human, or not -- or something else altogether.  I rarely paint from life, with the exception of commissioned portraits.  Even then, I take liberties.

 

I love the absurd.  And material is plentiful.

 

An empty canvas, in my opinion, is just like an empty room.  If you stare at it long enough, it tells you what it wants and where.  Most exciting to me is where the eyes will go, because once the eyes are painted, I have company.  I hate to work alone.

 

My medium is almost always acrylic – with maybe a dash of pencil or crayon – because the dry time is short, and the painter is impatient.  The painter also loves color.  You’ll see that.

 

I suspect that with most visual artists obsessive drawing starts early in life with a fistful of crayons and some available tempting surfaces.  It certainly did with me.  When I wasn’t reading a book, I was drawing in it.  When I saw an empty wall, things often didn’t end well for the wall.  In school I drew in class, at work I drew in meetings.  Now I paint in a studio.  Where I don’t get in much trouble.  Although I may have trashed a few more walls.

 

I graduated from University of Richmond, class of 1972, with majors in French and Italian and a minor in Education.  I taught school – French, Spanish, Art, Science (poor kids!) …  I worked in retail – trainer, fashion director, store manager, buyer.  I worked in theater – marketing, p.r., set design, costume design.  I worked in advertising – writer, producer, creative director.  I opened a gallery in Richmond called Mambo and sold painting, sculpture, metalcraft and beadwork by amazing Haitian artists.  In fact, I still own a large and cherished personal collection of Haitian art as well as many works by outsider artists from around the world.

​

That hodge-podge of experience shows up in how I think and what I paint.

​

My work has been shown and sold in galleries and shows in South Florida and Western North Carolina.  Currently, I’m testing the waters online and in Virginia.