I grew up in the wonderfully spooky city of New Orleans. While other kids were running about in the fresh air,  I remained huddled inside ; first devouring any fantasy or fairy tales that I could find, and then trying to illustrate what I had just read. I fell in love with the work of  the classic illustrators of children\’s literature. Rackham, Detmold, Dulac, Nielsen, and Tenniel put faces to the characters that I loved in all the old stories.

I continued to draw avidly . My efforts back then consisted mainly of pen and ink renderings of mermaids, fairies, and Tolkein characters. Then I finally got some lessons when I attended  the University of New Orleans, where I learned to paint and where – in 1986- I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree . Immediately thereafter, I began working as a Mardi Gras float painter and designer. While I worked on my own paintings here and there, I didn\’t really decide exactly what it was that I wanted to paint until I moved to Los Angeles in 1996, where I started painting rather unconventional still lifes.

I try to find the humor in life, and I want to make sure that my paintings imply a narrative. I use animals, people, odd toys, and haunting figures from old photographs to portray everyman. My first love though, continues to be creating and telling my own stories-to the best of my ability- through my paintings. Lately, I\’ve become much more interested in animals and humans…often engaged in magical activites, but I do still dearly love a still life-or what passes for one in my world.

I reside in Los Angeles where I freelance as a scenic artist for theater, television and film. I also keep very busy with commissions, illustrating a kid’s book, and , of course, working every minute that I can manage on my personal artwork-telling those stories.