Over 7 years ago, I began to paint after I had brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor from the right side of my brain.  I was recovering from surgery, and out of the blue, I called my mom and asked her to take me to buy some paint and brushes.  This was the first time I ever painted in my life.  While I was growing up, I was never exposed to art and just didn't know anything about it, though I had always wanted to learn more.  I began painting on wood, paper, newspaper, anything I could find, then I started to paint on canvas.  When I went back to my job in television, people looked at my art on the walls of my cubicle, and some people encouraged me to go further with it.  I would work all day, then come home and paint at night, and looked forward to the time I would be painting.  In October of 2000, I decided to leave my job and make a go of being a full-time artist.  Everyday, I learn something new about art, and I love making art.  The biggest compliment I can get is when adults look at my work and say, "that looks so childlike".  On the surface, my work seems to be innocent and non-threatening, but if you look deeper, there are many times observations about everything, from life, death, religion, politics, pain, childhood, just about everything.  I never know what I'm going to paint, it just comes to me as I go.  I love to write poetry, also, but don't do it as much as I used to.

My artistic influences are varied.  I like the work of Picasso, Mary Proctor, Eric Legge, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Howard Finster, Andy Warhol, Alice Neal, Harry Teague, & many others.  I think art is everywhere, sometimes we just have to
see.