Color has always been my weapon of choice. When faced with joy or hardship, turning to the palette to identify the mixture of colors that reflect my state of being, and carefully crafting their place on canvas, has become my lifelong passion. Through a combination of acrylic, oil, pastel, colored pencil, ink, and charcoal media, I have reflected the ups and downs of my life through my choice and fascination of color in paintings. I primarily use portraits and landscapes to express these situations, and tend to create surreal-like depictions.

In the last ten years of my life, dementia has caused my family to deal with loss and pain, but together we have used love and compassion to heal. After being the primary caretaker for my husband, who passed away from early onset dementia, I have been exposed to the daily difficulties and beauties of life in a nursing home. In the series of portraits of people in nursing homes dealing with various diseases, I wanted to express with vibrant colors that these people are still alive on the inside, although their bodies may trap them. I have been fortunate enough to paint with these nursing home residents on-site as a way to express their joys and their woes, as a form of healing and therapy. Through this, I have come to see their vivacious personalities, and feel it is important to recognize the souls that society seems to have forgotten.