My creative focus centers around nature. My acrylic paintings and graphite drawings are vignettes of landscapes and objects of curiosity. Animals play a large part in my subject matter, inspiring me to explore character through marionettes, sculpture, and pewter casting. Other areas that inspire my artwork are antiques and history, botanical symbolism in art, folk tales, and black and white photography. I begin my paintings on black primed panels. “A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” -Leonardo da Vinci