I grew up in southwest Oklahoma with big skies and enough critters to fascinate a small child. 
Some of my first memories are of my father's stories of the people and places he saw in his travels as a salesman.  He would strike up a conversation with a total stranger in a small cafe where we sat at the counter and they would talk about weather, crops, road work and bridges that might be out, the discussion inevitably winding down to the best places to fish and what bait to use, maybe even who to see about getting access to a secret fishing hole.  By the time we left I realized that my dad was an expert at sharing stories and making friends everywhere he went. 

The magic of my father's stories, the many books my mother encouraged me to read, the beautiful images they evoked created a need to go to new places and have adventures of my own. 

I drew concerts, people at parties or meetings, wilderness hikes and street scenes.
From the time I was a teenager I worked as an illustrator and studied art, earning a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, then going on to study ceramics and education at the University of Utah. For over 13 years I taught fine art, art history and computer graphics at secondary and college levels, but I spent the summers painting the sunrise over the Salt Lake as well as traveling all over the western U.S., the Caribbean, England, and Scotland.

I quit teaching but I still keep a sketchbook wherever I go and paint or draw most days, trying to learn and move forward.
 

---