I’ve done many things, lived a lot of places, had many jobs. Though I loved art since very little (I would draw the animals I saw in National Geographic magazines for fun), the possibility of ever working as an artist didn't exist in my head until I was deep into vet school. 

Yes, I’m trained as a veterinarian (UW-SVM, Madison) and in marine biology (Boston University). Somehow I acquired a deep love of all things water growing up in the Colorado mountains and desert. While working with the marine mammals at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago after graduating from BU, I started to think about veterinary medicine and within a couple years, I was at the vet school in Wisconsin.

My 3rd year, I started having night sweats; I woke up thinking someone had dumped a bucket of water on me. And they became worse. After finally telling my father, he said, “There’s something you’re not acknowledging to yourself.” What? No,I feel fine! But I started noticing how every time an instructor said, “When you’re out one day in your small animal clinic…”, I became nauseous. I was three years in, with much tuition already invested -- and I had to face that this was not what I wanted to do. I loved medicine, loved science, always have. But something wasn’t right. I didn’t know what to do about it, so I got my DVM, and passed my boards.

By some grace, I had instructors and mentors at the vet school that encouraged me to look into scientific and medical illustration. All of a sudden, the thing I had been doing since I was little, drawing, was going to marry with those last 4 years of intense study. After art school (UC-Santa Cruz), I started my own business, and had an amazing beginning (some of that work can still be seen on my yet-to-be-updated website). I then lost my business in the 2008 recession -- the darkest time of my life.

I’ve been married (what brought me to Minnesota), had a little boy, been divorced, and reinvigorated my art career down a whole other avenue, one I never could have foreseen… and that I adore. My first scratchboard pet portrait was accepted into the Minnesota State Fair's Art Show in 2016, and I've had continual commissions since then.

Though private commissions will continue for some time, I am now venturing into larger works to be made available for sale as limited- and open-edition prints; these creations have been a dream for some time, and I'm incredibly excited to be stepping into it.