For as long as I can remember, I have felt things differently. My emotions, preferences, and sensitivities sit closer to the surface than most people's — a difference I once carried heavily and now recognize as my greatest gift.

Painting has given me a way to express that sensitivity visually, translating what I feel so keenly into images that move others as well. Through difficult early years, art became a place of refuge and renewal, and it remains a bridge between my inner world and the viewer. Every canvas reflects that journey: a quiet, ongoing expression of self through colour, light, and form.

My paintings begin in the dirt. I tend the roses, peonies, and tulips that surround my studio, nurturing their potential the way I have learned to nurture my own. Making art engages me completely with beauty; I am deeply nourished by the subjects I paint in a way nothing else in my life can match.

To paint is to complete a relationship with the light and darkness within my subjects — a process that mirrors the creative life and serves as a metaphor for the human experience. Beauty and shadow are not opposites; each gives the other meaning.

I work in the tradition of painters such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Darnell, and Mickie Acierno. From them I discovered a window into realism and sensuality — the qualities I seek in every painting.