I was born in Omaha, left for university, and have been an academic most of my life—living in many U.S. states and abroad—teaching languages. For the past decade, I have been teaching English writing proficiency courses at U.S. embassies around the world.

But in my heart, I have always been an artist!

As a child, I loved drawing with crayons and oil pastels. I eased back into my artistic journey as a young adult with charcoal drawings, mainly stylized portraits.

Now I call myself a self-taught, mixed media art photographer specializing in human form photography. Occasionally I shoot with a Canon DSLR, but my iPhone has become my primary camera.

While globetrotting, I developed a passion for photography. Traveling to exotic locations and photographing ancient ruins and statuary in Europe, Turkey, and Southeast Asia feeds my artistic soul. Among my favorite subjects are angel statues from around the world. Today, my art photography portfolio contains thousands of photographs from over 30 countries.

I moved back home, and “reinvented” myself in Omaha as an artist in 2018 and have been selling my artistic creations ever since. I am best known for my hand embellished photographs of angels on paper and canvas, making each image a 3D, signed original. The materials I use to create are all made locally. I am so grateful to the Omaha artistic community for embracing my artwork! My work is currently featured at Joslyn Art Museum’s Hitchcock Museum Shop, The Cloisters on the Platte Gift Shop and on their website, Saint Cecilia’s Cathedral Gift Shop, among others.

In the past few years, I have become obsessed with mannequins and love taking their portraits! Some of the mannequins I have discovered, always by accident, are so hauntingly realistic I feel slightly embarrassed sticking my iPhone so close to their faces to capture the perfect image. Lately, I have been digging into my vast portfolio of faces and creating black and white portraiture. I love the mystical qualities of black and white images, especially the play of light on the contours of a face.

Watching the new Art Plug video interview series with local artists has inspired me to start drawing and painting again! My latest artistic endeavor is creating— drawing and then painting with a wide variety of mixed media—large stylized portraits on canvas.