I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota at Mankato as an art major. I then pursued riding horses in England for over two years and returned to the United States to begin showing Hunter and Jumper horses across the country. I was riding and showing horses for over two decades until I took another major turn in my career with real estate. For most of the late 90's and into early 2000, I worked selling real estate and eventually found my niche as a certified appraiser with my own company.
One of my life dreams is to continue with my passion of painting. Following this goal, I realized that it was very difficult to make serious improvements in my painting without giving up my career in real estate. In 2004 I gave up my real estate ventures to pursue a career in the art world.
I applied and was accepted into the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and was scheduled to start in September of 2004. Before committing to the program, I realized I would be best off studying with artists whose style I admired and that I could relate to. As a result, I have enrolled in workshops across the country with such artists as Reid Galey, Greg Lipelt, Marc Hanson, Peggy Kroll Roberts, Kim English, C.W. Mundy, Carolyn Anderson, and Huihan Liu.
I am basically a self-taught artist. Besides the few workshops, I have not had much formal training. I now feel confident in developing my own personal style and methods. I have great fun painting and strive to challenge myself to progress to higher levels.
In effort to hone my skills as a painter, I have made a goal of finishing at least one small painting every few days.