About

I paint the West as it appears to me, familiar, but slightly tilted. Cowboys, musicians, horses, and desert landscapes show up often, filtered through memory, music, and a small but persistent sense of myth.

I grew up on the East Coast and first met the West through television. I wanted to be The Bionic Woman, running in slow motion through an imaginary desert. The day after high school graduation, I headed for Arizona. I was so excited I ran barefoot onto the sidewalk and immediately blistered my feet. Myth, meet reality.

Arizona was too hot. Colorado was too cold. Los Angeles was just right — though that is another story.

As a musician, I’m drawn to cowboy singers and the idea of sound traveling across open land. I’m fascinated by frontier stories and by the humor and stubborn optimism of people who leave one life behind in pursuit of another.

I’ve listened to Lonesome Dove far too many times while painting.