I am a fifty six year old self-taught artist who has lived in Rhode Island my entire life. I have been creating art since childhood, working in every available craft while growing up. I studied mechanical drawing and architecture at Toll Gate High School and the Community College of Rhode Island. I also took ceramic, weaving and painting classes during this time. In 1998 I began to focus on my painting when I purchased a beach house in Riverside, RI near the old Crescent Amusement Park. That started a ten year rehab project to restore the house to a 1950's to 1960's retro look. I decorated the house with furniture and collectibles from the same era. I created amusement park themed pieces of art for every room. My house looks like a fun house gift shop, crossed with Ripley's “Believe it or not” museum and a Christmas light display. The house is also my art studio and I spend all of my free time there with my constant companions LuLu and Lenny. They are spotted, mini Dachshunds who have larger than life personalities and insist on being my very involved art assistants. The dogs are not helpful of course, spending most of their time covered in different colors of paint while chewing on my painting supplies - but they are a big part of my life. When I am painting I use all of these influences and my varied life experiences and let them run amok in my very active imagination, then combine them with my love of color and my sense of humor to create my art. In 2008 I began showing my art in galleries in the New England area and have been accepted into many juried shows during the last 6 years. I have won second place in the Plymouth Guild “A Different Vision Show” in 2010 and also in the Imago "On and Off The Wall" show in 2011. I also won the first place Foundation Award in the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative show in 2012. In 2010, when asked by the Rhode Island State Department of Children, Youth and Families - DCYF - for ideas on how to bring local art to the youth in the care of the state, I created and became the Director and Curator of The New Hope Art Gallery at the Thomas C. Slater Training School, located in the Youth Development Center in Cranston, RI. The mission of the gallery is to provide inspiring 2D and 3D artwork of all styles, from local artists based on a rotating schedule, to the residents of the Training School and their families, to the staff, to the providers and to our guests. We are now in our fourth year and have expanded the gallery from 15 pieces of art to over 250 pieces per show.