I was born in Washington, D.C. and I grew up there and in Hamden, Connecticut. Most summers, my family would travel with my dad, who was a Paleobotanist, to Red Lodge, Montana and stay at a Geology field camp on Mount Maurice. As a child, I often visited museums, the Air and Space Museum, Natural History, and Art museums all stand out prominently in my memory. I feel very lucky to have had these experiences early on.

My interest in art began early. As a child I explored the world using my imagination, and I loved to wear costumes and pretend. In sixth grade, I started to work in the theater department in Hamden. I mostly did technical theater, where my main interest was lighting. In High School, I became increasingly interested in drawing through friends and art classes at school. I attended the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, which is a regional High School for the Arts, and I was lucky to spend five weeks at the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University, exploring drawing and music. Two classes from ECA stand out in my memory: one in Found Object Sculpture and the other in Experimental Photography. I knew that I wanted to be an artist.

I went to the University of Chicago, where I majored in Art and Design. I also studied French there to fulfill my language requirement, and as part of my program I went to study French intensively at a language institute in the Vendée. I loved learning a language, so I signed up to be an exchange student in Paris the following school year. I was able to study drawing there with an artist, and after graduating from Chicago I applied to the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, which I attended for 3 years. I was in the direct carving studio, making large sculptures in wood, stone and polystyrene. I left the Beaux-Arts without completing the degree, obtaining a Certificate of Studies.

After returning to the U.S. I lived in Los Angeles for three years, where I worked on sculptures and drawing and taught art. I learned a huge amount about teaching there from the owners of the school.

Returning to the East Coast and Boston, I worked at the New Art Center in Newton, a local art center. I taught all ages there, from kindergartners to adults. Mostly I was teaching drawing and painting. During this time, I also moved in my own work to drawing and painting because I didn’t have the resources and the space to make sculpture.

This was when I re-discovered photography. I had an pld copy of Photoshop that my brother Jason had given me, and a Canon G6 camera, and I started to play with them. I saw digital photography as an extension of painting, a medium for creating imaginative compositions. I also saw the opportunity to use the skills I already had as an artist to make a living. There was a demand for photography and clients who would pay for photographic services.

I went back to school to study digital photography in a professional certificate program offered by the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, where I soaked up all the information I could from the instructors, who were an extremely experienced group of professional photographers. They all had in common that they were in the process of weathering the shift from film to digital, and I benefited immensely from the program and used my skills as an artist to become a photographer.

I started my own business as a photographer and also taught for five years at CDIA. In photography, I have worked a great deal as a documentary and event photographer, also photographing interior architecture, products and portraits.

In May 2022, I received my Master of Arts in Teaching from MassArt. I am excited to return to teaching!

Biography