Ever since I was a little girl, I was taught about the importance of art, the importance of expression. This was all taught to me by my father. He taught many students the importance of art and its long history and I was always dragged along to the museums. I have to admit that at first I hated it. But who can blame a little girl for wanting to play outside? My father however had the remarkable ability to make stories come to life, about the lives of the painters – and the hidden stories that were told in the paint. As I grew older, I looked closer. With a hand on my shoulder my eyes became trained to see the techniques of these great artists. Looking and understanding however, was not enough; I had to try it for myself - I wanted to be a part of this magical world.

It was when I started that I could not stop. I drew everything that I saw at any moment that I could. My bookshelves are filled with so many journals and notebooks that I can’t even count it anymore. I still remember sitting on the couch as a little girl trying to draw a box that wouldn’t look right, and my dad sat next to me and taught me all about shading. It was in high school when my love for drawing and painting really exploded. I was in a pretty academically rigorous high school and I was going through a difficult time when art became my escape. There is this thing that runners experience after running for an incredibly long period of time called a “runners high”, and this is what happens with art. You get in this zone where all of a sudden there is this vacuum; a stillness that sweeps over you. You draw and the real world is far behind you and it’s just you and the paper. This is what I love about drawing; it’s ability to take you away – to transport to a place within yourself that you never knew existed.

My favorite drawings are portraits, faces show so much about a person’s life, but also have to power to clean. I love being drawn into these works because you can start making your own stories for these people – it really becomes an adventure. I also love working with mixed media – using drawing, painting and collage in my art.