My childhood was filled with the reminder that quiet and focus in one’s craft was of great importance. My mother was a novelist and my father a classical violinist and magician. From behind closed doors, on one end of the house I heard the pecking of the typewriter as my mother turned out one novel after the other. At the other end of the house, I heard the music of Bach, Mozart and Brahms playing in repetition as my father practiced to perfection. My job was to whisper and tiptoe while they worked.

As a child I played violin, cello and studied dance. But, mostly, I would sit and stare into space for hours while thoughts swirled through my head. I would suddenly find myself at the kitchen table making something out of nothing. I have always found beauty in nature and as a child I took big walks and hikes with my mother, near our house in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’d collect natural artifacts and bring them home to admire and try to make them into something. Whatever I saw became an element with potential to become more than what appeared. Even at home, daisies and appleseeds became necklaces, walnuts turned into strawberries and cardboard scraps became jewelry. I was always inventing and creating.

The truth is, I never believed I could paint. Secretly, I admired artists who had the ability to see reality. At the age of seven, I watched my best friend draw realistically and I was spellbound in awe. It was like magic to me. I just couldn’t see things in the same way and still to this day, everything I create comes purely from my imagination. I’ve always been a dreamer. Everything is imagined and invented. Even the department head in art school guided me to not go the classical route in order not to derail my style. This was a challenge. Though, through time, I eventually accepted my limitations, my nature and my abilities, and, that has allowed me to create with more freedom. Realizing how music and dance influenced me in my childhood, has helped me to accept my true self and paint freely. Now, when I paint, everything I ever learned is integrated into my art. My inner muse never ceases to inspire. I turn on the music, feel the emotion, the rhythm begins and my imagination soars.