I began my life as an artist on the floor of the dining room, drawing with crayons while my mother played the piano. My favorite game was to draw what I felt from her music.

I studied art and design at North Park College in Chicago, then pursued a career in graphic arts, finally retiring from that in March 2012. Meanwhile, I continued to study painting and drawing in my own time. I took classes wherever and whenever I could. I studied acrylic painting and anatomy drawing under Tom Heflin (another artist represented here on Fine Art Studio Online) through Rock Valley College in Rockford, IL. I went to work early, worked through my lunch hour, and stayed late, so I could take a class in watercolor from Don Lake at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. I began painting with watercolors about 15 years ago and continue to learn new techniques and explore new subject matter.

I have displayed my work at summer art fairs throughout Illinois and in Wisconsin, displayed at the Artists Against Aids benefit show and sale in Champaign, IL, where I was the top seller in 2004. When I went to pick up my paintings, they handed me a check! I have displayed at the Boneyard Arts Festival in Champaign/Urbana, and had a show with my husband at Indigo Artists' Co-op in Champaign, IL. He had photographs of ships and I was doing paintings of fish, so we called the show "Fish and Ships".
My fish paintings were so well received that I decided to keep swimming for a while.nike