"Ya just where ya are & dat's where it's at" Dr. John.

I have been drawing since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Painting came a little later but not by much. I was born and raised in New Orleans until my parents divorced. My mom remarried a military man and so we moved around a bit and it was hard to make friends but I always had my art to occupy my time. My mother was a pianist and she did a little dabbling around in the paint so she tried to teach me what she knew. I didn't have any formal art training until maybe high school & then I learned how to draw circles, lines, and the fundamentals in college. That was also where I got to paint with oils for the first time and my professor told me I was a natural. None of my professors were sticklers for technique, they allowed us just to play around and figure things out or maybe that's just the way I remember it. Painting really was my first true love until music came into my life.

For about 10 years I abandoned my first love without a second thought except for an occasional commission or entry into a show.  I was a singer in a blues band and that was immediate gratification and audience interactive. So different from my first love painting who required hours of solo work without any exposure to the outside world. I learned how to play guitar so I could accompany myself and tell my own stories, interned at a local studio to learn the recording process & gigged in and around New Orleans.  I also needed to pay the bills so up until recently I had a full time job as a buyer and retail manager.

I put the finishing touches on an album I had in the can and needed artwork for the cover. There was zero budget so I decided to do portraits of my trio to use as the album artwork.  That was in 2017 and I released the CD in December of that year. At the time I was managing 6 retail spaces so I knew I would not have time to do a CD release party until spring of 2018. To make it special I decided to do portraits of the musicians that contributed on that album and hold a combined art show & CD release party in May of 2018. The "Something Out Of Nothing" show was held at Treo on Tulane Ave. Later that same year I had a one woman show "With a Little Help From My Friends" at The Artisan Cafe on St. Claude in October/November of 2018. Again combining my two loves art & music, I  showcased my paintings and my trio performed each month during the St. Claude Art Walk. 

My creative process is just one foot in front of the other,  taking and making the next logical step in the unfolding and ever evolving act of creating and discovery. I never know what I'm gonna get up to but I'm excited to see. One thing I know for sure, it will continue to involve all of the characters of New Orleans that I am constantly inspired by.