When I was young, I told my babysitter that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, and she told 6-year-old me: “You can’t be an artist!” Fortunately, I ignored that terrible advice.

Many years and drawings later, I went on to study at UW-Madison and UM-Twin Cities, graduating with a BFA in painting and mixed media. While taking a gap year before grad school, I got a job teaching ballroom dance (“On-the-job training! No experience necessary!”) and “accidentally” began a thrilling career as a professional ballroom dance teacher and competitor.

Dancing is a beautiful, challenging, glorious art form that I love, AND I also knew that I wanted to return to the visual, tactile art world that I had spent years immersed in.

So here I am! I love to draw, paint and create stories, especially for children and the people they want to share them with. People are a blast to draw, and animals are frequent stars of my stories because they are drop-dead-gorgeous, fascinating, and lend themselves to being very funny. I geek out on just about any animal sighting, as my kids will be quick to tell you. (“Look! Bunny!”)

If I’m not doing one of the previously mentioned activities, you’ll find me gardening, sewing, practicing yoga, walking my dog, or making food with my family, usually homemade pizza. Which we’ve decided is the perfect food.

Member: SCBWI, 12x12, Storyteller Academy