artist's bio

Childhood:

Raised by a single mother in Dallas, Texas in a neighborhood with wide streets and cracked sidewalks. Climbed a lot of mimosa trees, dressed up my cats in baby clothes, and read John Steinbeck while the air conditioner hummed.

Sign: Leo

Degree: BA, American Studies, Smith College, 1994

When I decided to become a photgrapher:

I was 23 and utterly clueless about what to do with my life when I saw the documentary photographs of Dorothea Lange at the Oakland Museum. In one afternoon I decided to become a photographer and bought my first camera the next day. At the time, I was a nanny for a poetic, beautiful four-year old boy. My first pictures were of him--throwing tantrums at the park, looking into the sunset on top of Grizzly Peak, asleep in the car after coming home from the zoo. Architecture and nature never interested me behind the camera. It was portraiture, particularly that of children, that fascinated and continues to fascinate me.

What inspires me:

A great, empathetic love for children and the people they grow into. I am bent on continually asking questions about human nature and human potential through portraiture.