I have a fine art background and make my living as an illustrator and graphic designer. These past few years I've been getting back to my fine art roots, and discovering oil pastel has been a big part of that journey. I love oil pastels for their immediacy and portability. They offer me the ability to use them as a painting and a drawing tool, allowing me a greater visual vocabulary -- they really are the best of both worlds.

In these paintings, part of a larger series of oil pastel works, I've focused on visual evidence of the human presence in nature.

Education:

- BFA visual art, concentration in painting and drawing - Purchase College School of Art + Design
- Certificate in botanical illustration - Morton Arboretum
- Classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Affiliations:
- Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - Member
- Chicago Artists Coalition - Member
- Oil Pastel Society - Member