ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

I am a 43 year old, 2^nd generation Polish and Mexican American, mother of 2 teenaged boys, consummate junk collector and prolific painter. I was born in Anchorage, Alaska in an Air Force base hospital. From infancy to high school, my family moved five times to various towns in the mid-West and Massachusetts. Between moves I spent much of my free time sloshing tempera paint around on pieces of white construction paper. After I created my first masterpiece, an  8” x 11” depiction of zebras, I made the conclusion that, among other things, I was a passionate artist.

Back in the early 80’s I attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where I studied sculpture and met my husband. After graduating and marrying, I spent a brief amount of time working in local theaters as a scene painter. By the age of 28, I had 2 babies. We lived in a terrible, dark apartment in Brookline, MA, and we shared a light blue 1976 Pinto as our ride. So with impending poverty and the will to move to someplace with natural light as motivation, I used my experience from scene painting to start a faux finish and mural painting business with my husband.

For the past 20 years our company, Arteriors, has been painting faux finishes and murals for home owners, businesses, restaurants, architects and designers. My painting has incorporated many of the techniques used in my profession. Not being a traditional painter, I have always used an oversized format and scale, and I use hand tinted house paints as my medium. I draw from my own cultural background, and the culture I view from the media. I  cook meals, wait up at night for children to come home, travel as much as possible, maintain my optimism in an oppressive political climate, and paint passionately in a studio with natural light.