My Story

I wrote science fiction short stories when I was a child, one of which was published in Readers Magazine. I did art and won a few State contests. My parents devoured science fiction and I read most of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and other short stories at a very young age. This saturation of sci fi lends itself to some pretty “interesting” imagery in my artwork.I read Sylvia Plath’s only novel, The Bell Jar, before age 14. I picked it off the shelf from the big room that existed only to house the hundreds of books that my mom and dad read. This book caused me to think very seriously about life in general and brought my attention to my immediate environment, where women were often treated as second-class citizens and people of color were hunted during deer season. My coal mining hometown offered little to no promise for anyone who, at such a young age, had read The Bell Jar. After I graduated high school, I went to the hometown college to study typing, lost my father, joined a sorority, drank a lot, lost my virginity to a frat boy/jock, caught him cheating (but it was okay because he was religious and would be forgiven), married him anyway, but then it wasn't okay and I and divorced him, looked for love in all the wrong places, and contemplated suicide. My mother was so shattered after my father's death that she was unavailable to attend to my demand for an explanation to "why is life so cruel". My brother stayed home and had children and I, with my angst and thirst for all sorts of closures, went out to conquer the world. I recollect now that it conquered me!Then I had a brief affair with a brilliant, narcissistic film producer who broke my heart. He also introduced me to a world outside of my hometown while he was a grip for a famous producer on a well-known horror film. With a broken heart and ample angst, I started living in a fantasy world, fantasizing that I would move away and go to art school. I took my small portfolio with unharnessed drawings to an interview at The Maryland Institute, College of Art, in 1982 and graduated in 1986. Then I went on to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago to obtain my Master’s degree in Art Therapy in 1989. I worked as an art therapist with the criminally insane for about 6 years in hopes of understanding the dark side of humanity. These experiences shed light on the truths of oppression in our society and the difficult journey the less fortunate have in adhering to the parameters of the law. Much to the chagrin of the wealthy, who’s philosophical view is that “anyone can make a million dollars”,…from my experiences and observations I would say it is not so easy when you can only think about your next meal and cheap-ass drugs are always there for you, giving you the illusion you can escape the nightmare of your so called “life”.After that and much mind-opening experiences in England, Amsterdam, Scotland, Baltimore, Chicago and Miami Beach, (many of which I would never disclose here), I decided it was time to get down to business and start painting before I die – after all, most people in my immediate family died before age 54 – so I had no time to waste; plus, I wanted to give my husband some type of insurance policy since I was told that my life is not worth insuring.I live in South Florida with my husband and paint and exhibit and work part time in a bank so as to keep my left brain somewhat stimulated enough to remember to take my vitamins each day. It seems that I am obsessed with painting now and am very driven to continue my unconscious journey on the canvas. My husband is a plaintiff’s civil rights attorney with a Master’s degree in psychology so we are both "psychologically savvy", as he says – two peas in a pod.