The Florida keys were my home for most of my life. I spent a great deal of time boating, snorkeling and diving the once stunning reefs. Exploring the Florida bay back country was another wonderful adventure! Shells, feathers & driftwood were my treasures. I started creating art at a very young age. Thanks to a wonderful local art guild who provided art students with awards of supplies, I was able to learn how to work with many different media. At 16, I received a scholarship to Ringling School of Arts. At 18 I won a scholarship to study in Italy, through Florida International University in conjunction with the University of Bologna,Italy. It was 2004 when the feathers became a prominent fixture in my work. I loved how the patterns you find on feathers duplicated the patterns and colors you find on the reef and it’s tropical fish. I created collages, jewelry and finally started painting on the feathers. I do not dye the feathers and only rarely cut them to trim or shape. All the feathers I use are naturally shed and are responsibly & legally sourced from parrot rescues, private owners, & rare bird breeders. My work has been featured on PBS television’s Art Loft series: Episode #249 & # 349. They can be viewed on YouTube. You can see my largest works, to date, installed at the Christian Louboutin boutique in the Miami Design District. I was commissioned to create a tryptic of feather collages, each being 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide. In September of 2017, Hurricane Irma flooded my keys apartment and that October saw me moving to my new home in Fort Myers were I now reside full time.
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