My seminal experience in creating art was at the age of 5.  As a patient at an Arthritis Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, I was taught by one of the patients (I was the only child there) to make beads from magazines. During a generally frightening and difficult time in my life, it was thrilling to be able to make something beautiful with my own hands. I had something to show people so the conversation wasn’t just about me being sick with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. This new identity as a creative person could take me away from pain. This led to the desire to be a beatnik when I grew up.

The next stage of my artist's identity was sparked in Metals and Design during a Music & Art Camp (where I took my first jewelry class) at the University of Kansas the summer after my junior in High School when my family was living in Sumter, SC. I went on to major in Crafts at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. After graduation, I worked jewelry manufacture as a designer and wax carver in Chattanooga TN before striking out on my own.

I have studied with Debra Lynn Gold at the Chastain Arts Center and explored volumetric silversmithing with Julia Woodman at Spruill Arts Center. As a member of the Metal Arts Guild of Georgia (formerly Georgia Goldsmith Guild), I have developed my skills in classes with John Cogswell, Michael Good, Pauline Warg, Michael Boyd, Robert Taylor, Gia Gogishvili, Valentine Yotkov, Paulette Warger, Barbara Mann, Doug Wunder, and others. I attend classes at Wildarces, Arrowmont, and Penland.