I’ve been drawing, painting, and building things for as long as I can remember. Curiosity about the natural world and how things are made drives most of what I do. I like to get my hands dirty and throw myself into my work, which is a manifestation of the all-in, imperfect but direct way I approach life. Recent events have me turning from a solitary studio practice to more collaborative and public work, especially around themes of joy, wildlife, and nature.
I earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. While there I studied in Rome for a year and returned again once I graduated. From there I moved to New York briefly before moving to St. John in the US Virgin Islands, where I made and sold art, and opened a small gallery with another artist. After a year I moved to NYC, worked in a mural house, earned an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art, and with friends opened and ran a cooperative gallery on east seventh street in the basement of a Ukrainian church.
Drawn by a live work opportunity, I moved to Connecticut. There I joined and for a year led the Loft Artists Association, developing my art and helping to create and deliver free art workshops and experiences to the public, and became a teaching artist with the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield. I created art classes and exhibits for local middle schoolers in Norwalk through the Silvermine Guild of Artists’ outreach program, was an art mentor for elementary school students in Stamford, and set up and ran a free choice art program for local middle schoolers at Stamford’s public charter school. I created and exhibited work in Connecticut and New York, including at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center and the Lockwood Mathews Museum in Norwalk, had work added to private and public art collections, including at Stamford Hospital, SH’s Bennet Cancer Center, Yale New Haven Hospital’s Park Avenue Medical Center, and Sacred Heart University, and included in the movies “The Bounty Hunter” with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston and “Something Borrowed” with Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin. As New Canaan Library’s second artist in residence I exhibited and offered nature and conservation themed art workshops to the public, and through the National Parks Artist in Residence program spent a month living and painting at Weir Farm in Wilton in 2019, where I now lead nature based art workshops.
In August 2020 I installed a 110 foot mural at the Bennett Cancer Center. The people I met while I worked there helped me to understand the power of public art and I knew I wanted to do more. I contacted 2 of my former students, high schoolers to paint a mural. During the process I partnered with RiseUp for Art to form Stamford Murals. The two young artists and I just installed our fourth mural together here in Stamford.
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