There have been 2 consistent themes throughout my life:  animals & art.

 I love animals.  They’ve always been a large part of my life and I’ve found myself easily connecting to them emotionally.  They continue to be a substantial and meaningful source of amusement, beauty, innocence & comfort to me. 

 As for art, I was happiest in art class & doing anything creative.  My acceptance & participation in art programs geared to those with talent was more about just doing something I liked.  I’m sure it surprised no one when I dropped out of college, hating the curriculum & subject matter of a more “practical” major... & again no surprise when I gave it a second try almost a decade later & changed my major to Fine Art.  I wanted higher education & if I was going to get it, it would be on my terms, focusing on something I enjoyed.

 I grew up in the 70’s, when cartoons were the quintessential kids’ programming & nothing like the cartoons of today.  Adults had weeknight Primetime but Saturday morning cartoons was a thing & it belonged to kids.  And the only movie animation was Disney & it possessed a certain quality that was visually realistic & relatable yet steeped in magic & make believe at the same time.  Even the bad characters were oddly endearing.  And the colors!… the screen was saturated in every hue variant possible within the spectrum – it was rich, beautiful & entrancing. 

 So, I guess it’s logical, given my love of animals & with the influence of childhood TV & cinema, that the style I’ve cultivated can be best described as happy & whimsical; likely inspired from those cartoons.  And quite simply, really, I just want to paint what makes me feel good & ultimately makes me smile.

 The most common response I receive from people regarding my art is “it makes me smile” & I see it in their faces – a smirk, an unexpected surge of amusement.  I’d like to think that something in my painting had simply made their heart smile & it made its way to the surface.  Creating isn’t just a force of passion, but also a means to escape “life” & my innate direction is in the opposite direction of stress or anything negative, but rather one that inspires joy or feel-good feelings.  In what I paint, there’s no profound message; nothing to figure out; no deep thought needed.  It is what it is.  Like me, what you see is what you get.

 I was born & raised in Jersey but call Connecticut home.  My husband & I live on our woodland farm in Connecticut with our foxhound & rescue donkeys.