My father was a rather quirky professor who specialized in electromagnetic waves. He would spend hours and hours with his guitar or piano to get a certain chord progression perfect. He could play by ear, draw anything with ease, and solve math problems that were many pages long. Thankfully, my mother was much more laid back! She loved to garden and dabbled in various crafts, crocheting, and re-upholstering furniture. So those are the two most admirable and influential people in my life. I got discouraged in both art and music and really did not like crafts! My passion came from learning, swimming, running, and being in nature. From the time I was very young I spent hours alone exploring the banks of the Flint river and the dunes along Lake Michigan. Once I finished school , my medical practice became my art.
My interest in botanical illustration came in two different paths. I love flower and vegetable gardening so took the master gardener course through MSU to learn more and became infatuated with plant science. I also started to teach myself how to draw and started out with birds because I love bird watching. I soon realized that birds were usually surrounded by plants and landscape so things took off from there and I started to pursue watercolor painting. Since then, I have fallen in love with botanical illustration and the many different types of media we were exposed to in this course.