I was born in New Bedford, MA in 1970 into a home where making art was an act of survival. Having lost both kidneys to an unexpected illness at age 20, already a young dad, my father was released from the path of becoming a machinist at his family’s shop. He instead became a stay-at-home dad and full-time struggling artist. I was to become his second set of hands. 

At his side I learned the disciplines of pottery, calligraphy, life-drawing, printmaking, oil and watercolor painting, and photography. Together we built and rebuilt his studio over the course of my childhood, as his choice of medium shifted and his health deteriorated. 

When I arrived at the Massachusetts College of Art, I was well trained but completely unprepared for the experience of a formal education. I soon dropped out. 

What followed was a long battle between the duty to fulfill my father’s unfulfilled path and a desire to forge my own. Painting was a constant while my career shifted between design (both housewares and men’s clothing), videography, gallery work, food styling, and parenthood. 

I now paint full-time in the Hudson Valley while raising two teenage daughters.