From the moment I could hold a pencil I loved to draw.  I remember as a kid drawing everything in sight, from animals to portraits.   I have also always enjoyed being outdoors. I was lucky growing up that my family liked to be outdoors. We went camping, fishing, hiking and every year a trip to the ocean. 

 In college I tried many different types of media and styles, but I always returned to pencil drawing animals.  I received by Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Longwood University.  After a few years of floundering I began teaching elementary art.  I married my wonderful husband, Tad, who inspires me and we’ve had two beautiful little girls.

There is something magical to me in creating the textures of living creatures and it always draws me back.  To me the pencil is the purest form of art.  I love to visualize the shades of gray how they connect and join to create one glorious creature, no color to confuse or distract, just the animal itself.  I do also work in color just because color fascinates me and sometimes I need to step back and play.  It is not the end product that inspires me to create, but the journey on which a drawing takes me.  The process of studying an animal to get a feel for its movements and textures, how the light reflects how the scales join and so on.

I actually made my first run of prints a while ago but didn’t get serious about selling them or the others I’ve drawn until just recently.   A few years ago, Tad and I took a trip to the Keys.  I was hooked!  The first time I hooked in to a tarpon, I thought I hooked in to a bus! We encountered a  barracuda while snorkeling and I was instantly intrigued.  This was not the creature you read about in books.  He hung around the side of the boat watching me and hanging out with a goliath grouper as if they were Laurel and Hardy.  The water, the fishing, the snorkeling- what an inspiring place!  I sketched as much as I could while we were there and returned with a new found enthusiasm to continue my artwork. 

The conservation of earth’s beautiful waters and the creatures it inhabits are very important to me.  Therefore, a portion of the profits from most of prints I sell will go to help select conservation groups. I draw what I like.  I draw what inspires me.  I hope others like it too.