I grew up in Carmel, California. As young as two years old I kayaked with my mother in the Carmel River and Monterey Bay. I grew up with the wilderness all around me. I loved the smell of fresh rainfall on dirt, the sounds of many birds, busy in the trees, and the feeling of sand through my hands. I learned to focus my attention on small details of the world around me since we didn’t have TV. Instead, we had movies to watch for entertainment and that’s when I fell in love with cinematography. The world is my visual nourishment; the music plugged in my ears the mood builder, and out of me came a splendid development in the arts.
In
High School I fell in love with Japanese culture and its Manga, or graphic novels. I then began
to create a library of Anime that I was very much attracted to. I watched and learned to draw like
that of Japanese cartoon art. I attended Notre Dame High School where I earned a metal of honor
in the arts. I am a senior, Bachelor of Arts student at Dominican University of California in San
Rafael, where I am studying Digital/ Fine arts. I hope to continue and earn a Masters degree.
I am currently working on my Spring Dominican University Senior Show, and Thesis. It will consist of a 20x30 hand painted canvas piece, which will depict the characters and title of my published children’s book. Along with eight of the twenty-two individual hand painted oil pastel framed pieces.
Soon after I Graduated from High School, I had the good fortune of meeting Kim Schaurer who has 37 years of experience traveling in India. He was my guide to India in 2003 when I was only nineteen and again in the summer of 2004, which included a wedding in Jaisalmer, India. These trips influenced the colors you see in my show “Legs and Teddy’s” at the Galerie Plein Aire in Carmel, California. In summer of 2006 I spent seven weeks in Paris, France producing the thumb nail paintings that became the large finished pieces in the “Legs and Teddy’s” show.
While exploring the Louver in Paris France filled with Art Nouveau paintings and a 60x30 foot burlap canvas remnant of a Toulouse Lautrec poster of the Moulin Rouge. This spurred my imagination and is the basis for my senior thesis that spans 2006 to 2008. I am hand painting with oil pastels 32 panels that will be digitized and published as a children’s book. Five panels will be framed and displayed. A canvas 30x20 feet hand painted with my characters and the books title made into the books cover page.
