I was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up on Long Island. From early childhood, I was fascinated by all form of plant life, creating little gardens on vacant lots and spending hours watching tree leaves sway in the wind. I earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design and an MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. I have made clay sculptures and worked as a printmaker, but my favorite medium is oil paint on canvas. I paint all aspects of vegetative life: seedlings bursting through the hard dirt in springtime, my houseplants sitting on the windowsill bathed in June sunshine, and off-beat landscapes. I sketch several interestingly shaped trees during my walks in the local nature park and, put them together to suggest a forest. I am not interested in portraying magnificent vistas like the Hudson River School painters; (good thing since Long Island has no magnificent vistas!); I want to emphasize that each tree is a unique soul and imply by extensions that all nature is unique and precious.