I was born in a little adobe house in Santa Fe.  Of course I paint!

My childhood memories are filled with color and light, and safe little streets that we were allowed to play in, and Hollyhocks that I made into little pink and white dolls.

My grandmother's house was on Santa Fe Avenue, and it was surrounded by the flowers that my grandfather had planted...Lilacs, Columbines, Poppies, a cherry tree, an apple tree, and a grape arbor with a hammock that constantly dumped me on my head.  The people who were in and out of my parents' and grandparents' homes, the artists, and poets, and writers (who are now the legendary names of Santa Fe) were simply family friends.  Very, very interesting friends who gave me their old tubes of paint and scrubby old brushes, along with very serious art lessons.  And my grade school art teacher gave me one of her easels, a big old unwieldy thing that I treasure to this day.

There was never any question that I was meant to be a painter, and I went about it with determination.  Well-armed with my Santa Fe background, I moved to Albuquerque and got my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico.  And then I started painting.  I painted the walls in apartment buildings, I painted commercial haunted houses, I marbleized columns for contractors, and painted faux tile floors in private homes.  I painted murals on health clinics and backdrops for convention events coordinators.  If it could be painted, I painted it...for money and for free, and far too often, it was for free.

In between all of this "trying to make a living", I was actually getting to do some of my real work...painting on canvas.  My father always said to me, "If you have to be an artist, you have to do paintings of adobe houses!", because that is, of course, what sells in Santa Fe.  I wanted to paint anything but.  I painted insects and animals and social commentary and folk-art paintings of the saints.

All of this painting came together and served me well when I became a theatrical set designer and painter, and a film industry set painter.  (I'm a proud member of IATSE Local 480.  )Some of the productions that I painted on were "Natural Born Killers", "Wyatt Earp" the video for Guns n' Roses "November Rain", and 27 episodes of the Italian production, "Lucky Luke".

I now live in a little house in Albuquerque's North Valley, with dogs, cats, and pigeons.  I am still painting chickens and insects and churches and saints.  And yes, Daddy, little adobe houses.

Albuquerque is filled with light and beautiful colors.  Of course I paint.