My recent visit to a medium revealed that my cards read as “being an Expressive”. I am on this earth to express myself through music and art. Everyone whom I meet sees my true self through my works. Personally, I am tone deaf and cannot sing a note or learn an instrument. Drawing and painting, and seeing infinite variations of color are another matter.

I have oil paintings that I painted at age 13. Truth be told, my first teacher probably placed more strokes on the canvas than I. Her encouragement, however, started me on this life long vocation.

Now, at a stage in my life where I have more freedom to do what the Universe put me here for, I am pleased to present my CV of my art for you to enjoy, share and perhaps make part of your personal art collection. So please enjoy my web site and feel free to log onto my blog for comments and questions.

But first I would like to give you a brief background of where I started and where I am now.

How Did I Get Here by the Talking Heads rings true.

Education

In high school I took art as electives, although not always encouraged as I was when I was 13.

I got an F because I put a wash over a pen and ink drawing of an old barn in Dix Hills.  I attended Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY from 1968-1972 and although I majored in Finance, I attended as many drawing classes as I could. In 1972 I went to Europe for a summer semester. The group was an odd mix of Football players hoping to raise their GPA, artsy types and Italian language students. And me. The business major. We painted nonstop for three months and I have included a fine selection from my sketchbook of watercolors, many of them in the plein air style. From one of those I created an oil Painting, Bassano Del Grappa, that is also included.

Upon entering the business world I always made time to take art classes. I specialized in florals since I was a teen, probably because I worked at a flower shop/art framing store at the time, and then gravitated to landscapes, a few portraits, most of them sold or given as gifts, and contemporary works in collage and mixed media. I was channeling Rauschenberg without even knowing a whit about his work! Maybe Jasper Johns as well.

For 15 years I studied with Long Island artists who taught in adult ed classes at the local schools. Jeffrey Webb at Huntington Township Art League, George Thompson at Chelsea Mansion in Muttontown, a teacher named Mr. Rose at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley and finally at the Oyster Bay Teaching Studio, run by a genius named Rob Zeller. Look his work up. Jane Taubner-McGraw also worked there and she taught me how to use pastels, which I still enjoy on occasion.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

In 2000 I convinced my framer, Don Mistretta of Mistretta Galleries in Glen Cove, to allow me to have my first show. My basement was bursting with art that was 30 years in the making, so I named the show “Retrospective of An Unknown (Artist)”. Everyone knew me but no one knew of my paintings. About 100 people attended the opening and I was happy to see so many of my friends and business aquaintences buying up my work, and multiples to boot.

In 2002 Don hosted an art show called “Plates: Benefit for World Hunger”. I offered a Marcel Duchamp knockoff of a white painted stool, alighted by a white painted plate, filled with white gesso and stuffed with used oil paint tubes. It sold for a lot of money to a business client of mine. The charity was very pleased.

In 2003 I took all those Italy sketches, had Don frame every one, and had another show “Art and Travels: Italy 1971”. They sold out, practically. I still have about 15 left and they are offered here for sale as well. Cheap.

In 2007 I created a show based on a year’s worth of New York Times clippings and presented at Mistretta Gallery a show of collages ranging in current event subject matter. It bombed.

In 2009 Mistretta Galleries had a charity event “Haiti Relief/ Earthquake and I participated. I totally forgot what I did, but it sold too.

By then I was getting noticed and even had write ups in the local newspapers. I was invited to exhibit my works in a hallway of Mill Neck Manor where Mansions and Millionaires produced a Designer Showcase and sold a handful of pastels. That was in 2010, when I had decided to move to Florida. I donated my Sign of the Times works to my law school, Touro Law Center in Central Islip and also donated many of my local landscapes to the Oyster Bay Historical Society Museum, where that still hang.

Florida

Since 2012 I have been a resident of Florida, and I took little time to check out the art scene. I studied at the Armory Art Center with teachers Sam Perry and Sonya Gaskell, and in 2014 I submitted an application as a Master Class student at the Boca Raton Museum School on Palmetto Park Road. Miles Leventhal is my instructor and I love him for all he does for me, especially when I was painting to express my grief over losing my partner and husband of 21 years. I include “Roland Traveling the Universe” in the site but I think I will keep it for myself. I belong to the Palm Beach Plein Air group on Meetup and have a great time working outdoors with some wonderful people. Ralph Papa does a fine job running the group.