Enjoying the challenges of painting almost every day makes me feel very fortunate to have stubbornly adhered to my early desire to make art.
My mother provided the first family story of my attraction to the visual arts. She noticed me, at age four, drawing my own designs in the margins of a coloring book. I was ecstatic when presented with sheets of blank paper. The pursuit of the visual arts was bolstered by Saturday classes at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh starting at age twelve. While resisting career advise that was often negative toward the arts, I received a BFA in painting from Penn State U. which included a semester at the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College, London. Four months in Europe included tours of many major art museums and exposure to a more positive, continental embrace of art careers.
While teaching art and art history, first at a high school and later at colleges in Maryland, I received an MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, while continuing to paint. A program that was very meaningful was a summer gifted and talented arts camp, titled the Maryland Center for the Arts at Goucher College, Towson, MD. I taught painting there and was the director for five years. The faculty was an inspiring collection of visual and performing artists.
For the past fifteen years, my retirement in Colorado has been rich with exploring the visually extravagance of the west. Devoting my time to painting and teaching studio and art history courses at the Osher Institute, CSU in Fort Collins has been a pleasure. Recently I taught a six-week course titled, 100 Years of Surrealism. The research included many powerful artists that are not household names, but delightful additions to my current painting ideas. Also, many trips to Santa Fe with explorations of the many galleries and museums has been a positive influence.