I graduated from East Carolina University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in printmaking & painting. I was hired right out of college as a book designer for Macmillan Publishing Company in New York City. That’s when my adventures began! But after working there for only a year and a half, I decided it was time to travel. Young men and women were back-packing and hitch-hiking all over Europe and northern Africa at the time, and I joined in. 

My travels have been the greatest asset in my life and my art. I experienced things that I knew nothing about until I set foot out on my path. I kept a sketchbook and added entries daily about my surroundings. 

My sister joined me in Greece in 1971. We met two American men there who had been planning a big trip. The four of us spent nine months traveling overland to Kathmandu, Nepal. The trip of a lifetime!

In 1974, back in the States, I set out to visit Indonesia alone with the sole purpose of learning batik: the traditional Javanese art of wax-resists and dyes on fabric. I lived and worked in Indonesia and Singapore for seven years. 

After Singapore, I lived in Hawaii, WA state, and moved to Arizona in 2003. The stark contrast in colors and vegetation from the tropics to the high mountain desert sparked a whole new way of representing my world. My sketchbooks became the playground for my art experiments and ideas. Yet my love and appreciation for Nature and all her brilliant colors continue to inspire my paintings. I hope you enjoy them, too!