My father, an accomplished artist himself, became my first teacher when I was very young. From the time I could hold a pencil, he taught me to observe—to really see—and gave me a foundation in drawing and painting that would shape the rest of my life.

One of my earliest memories of realizing that art might be something different for me happened in first grade. Our class had colored maple leaves for a display, and when mine was shown, the other children gathered around it in amazement. I wanted to disappear under my desk from the attention, but I also remember feeling incredibly proud. For the first time, I understood that I saw things a little differently.

Art became much more than a talent as I grew older. During difficult years in my teens, including my parents’ divorce and the death of my grandfather, creating became a place of refuge. I discovered early what I would come to understand much more deeply later in life: art has the ability to turn us inward, help us process what we have lived through, and sometimes reveal things we cannot yet put into words.

I continued my art education through high school, attending weekend classes at art schools in Boston and later pursuing formal studies in commercial art, fashion design, and interior design. After earning my bachelor’s degree in Commercial Art, I worked briefly in the commercial art field, but quickly realized that I needed to create with my hands. I wanted paint, texture walls and surfaces, and the physical process of making something.

In 1998, I started my own decorative painting business in Massachusetts. After moving to Florida in 2000, I rebuilt my clientele and developed a career as a muralist and decorative artist. A collaboration with Garay Artisans and Focal Point introduced me more deeply to the world of fine decorative finishes. For six years, we worked throughout Florida and Georgia, combining murals, faux finishes, specialty surfaces, and decorative techniques to create custom environments for residential and commercial clients.

Over the decades, my work expanded to include murals, trompe l’oeil, gilding, faux marble and wood, textured finishes, decorative furniture, custom canvas work, and specialty finishes. Those years taught me to work fearlessly with materials and scale—and to see the surface itself as part of the story.