biography

I grew up in Midland, Michigan, where I combined my love of nature and art by working as an exhibit and diorama designer at area museums and nature centers.

With a double major in biology and art, I moved to Chicago where I found work as an animator. While being happily employed at Calabash Animation, I have developed my interest in painting and drawing. I have been focusing on interpreting landscape with watercolor and oil "en plein air" (in the open air, or outside).

It's a wonderful way to experience nature. I love how landscape balances on the edge of abstraction. There is so much information in nature that is mysterious and unexplained. From any viewpoint in time and place, we can never really know what lies around the bend, what is shrouded by the atmosphere, or what else may be living in that grove of trees.