I was born in Culver City, California. My mother was an art teacher and my father began his career in education as an industrial arts teacher. With so much artistic influence around me during my formative years, I quite naturally grew up with a love for the arts. I remember as a small child, always having paints and crayons set before me, and experiencing the freedom of creating. My father built me my first easel, which I used from the age of four or five. I have always had a love for painting and drawing. As a teenager I would fill sketchbooks with drawing of people in waiting rooms, drycleaners, ice skating rinks, and grocery stores. For a time I was so excited about Degas’ work that I drew and painted ballet dancers exclusively. My first gallery showing was in the Meji Gallery in Ginza, in March of 1988. I have also been privileged to be shown at the Sumitomo Bank in Aoyama and the famed Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art. I also had a successful showing at the Dogenzaka Gallery Space in Shibuya in April of 1989. As in my work from Japan, I have found houses, windows, doors, and entry ways that have character and capture my imagination. Much of my inspiration comes from local landscapes where I live in rural Chatham County. I often look to Fearrington Village and its garden setting for many of my paintings. Gardens have always held a fascination for me. As a child, I would spend hours with my mother, tending to the roses, daisies, and blue hydrangeas in our backyard, and I had a recurring dream of wandering in an English-style garden with tall hedges and brilliant greens. I enjoy the challenge of capturing light and experimenting with rich, bright color combinations, contrasting them with deep shadows. I strive to use my feeling and the color from my brush to breath life into these objects and show my "minds-eye" to the world.