I grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh and as a teenager took courses at Carnegie Tech (Carnegie Mellon) on Saturdays. At 17 I entered a tissue paper and ink drawing at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and sold my first creation. I became a tax lawyer and returned to art in 2020 during the pandemic when I took several gouache classes at the Yellow Barn Studio at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. My painting, Sunny House, won the award for the Best Watercolor/Gouache at the 26th Annual Friends of the Yellow Barn Members Show. The show was judged by Harry Cooper, Head Curator of the Modern & Contemporary Art department at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.