I am an only child raised by a single mother. As a child I was shy, introverted and quiet. Art was my constant companion.

From the age of three I was always drawing. I used chalk, crayons, markers, anything I could get my hands on. My happiest memories are drawing alone in my room with my vivid imagination to keep me company.

All throughout school I took every art class I could. I never fit in, so art was my way to embrace my true self.

At age 14, I was blessed with an amazing art mentor named Tonja Sell. She opened my mind to art history, art techniques and masterful painters like Degas and Klimt. That’s when I got the spark for painting women.

I loved drawing the human figure and because I was the most convenient and free model, I practiced by drawing myself. In art school we got to draw and paint live models of all shapes and sizes. But in my sketchbooks, I always drew women.

When I started exploring watercolors ten years ago, I painted a variety of subjects such as botanicals, animals, portraits and figurative female works. Someone asked me, “If you could only choose one subject to paint for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Without hesitation I replied, “women”.

There is a beauty in painting the figure, the face, the hair, the clothes. I love it all. It challenges me, it pushes me, and it strengthens my growth as an artist. 

Over the years in my artistic expression, I have enjoyed drawing with pencil or charcoal or pastel. I’ve explored ceramics and even glass. Painting has always been my truest expression with oils or watercolor. Last year I felt a strong desire to return to oil painting.

When I started my oil painting series in 2020, I wanted to capture character traits of women. There is a mystery surrounding women. Their eyes, their emotions, their strength, their softness. Beauty mixed with pain. Serenity in times of struggle. Stepping up to do what needs to be done. 

I wanted these paintings to evoke emotion. I wanted the viewer to truly connect with each painting, not as a portrait, because these works are not portraits. I wanted the viewer to connect with the embodiment of what I admire most in women- strength, dignity, courage, confidence, grace, wisdom, resilience, balance.

March is Women’s History Month and we have a long line of inspiring, courageous ladies that have shaped our past and contributed greatly to our future. It is my desire to inspire other women each and every day and to encourage them in their passions and creative pursuits.  As you view this new series of paintings, my hope is that you will see a bit of yourself in these women or a character trait of a woman in your life.