San Francisco has been my home since 1996, when I moved here with my husband and my son because of my husband's work. Born in New York City and living in suburban Connecticut, I had pursued a demanding 20-year New York-based career in public relations and corporate communications after I graduated from Connecticut College in New London with a BA in Literature.

Once in California, I stopped my PR and corporate work, but after having made my living for so long using words, I found that the Bay Area's light, scenery, attitude and whole way of life awakened in me a desire to communicate in visual terms. Some classes at the Sharon Art Studio in Golden Gate Park, plus my attempts to teach myself, confirmed my resolve.

I enrolled as an art student at City College of San Francisco in early 2003, and have been drawing and painting continually since then. I was a City College student for seven years, and continue to take private instruction. My work has appeared in local, regional and national shows since 2005. I am active in several Bay Area arts organizations, and as an art community volunteer.

My primary medium is watercolor, and I describe my style as "recognizable abstraction." I seek simplification. I want to distill my chosen subject, emotion or thought to what I feel is its basic sense -- preferably in a way that would not occur to anyone else. Lately, I have also moved into pastel painting, focusing on the local landscape.