As a teenager, I would sit at the bus station in Memphis, Tennessee, with no destination.  I liked watching people move by like apparitions.  For me this trip away from the suburbs was an equivalent to traveling to a foreign country.  These people that floated by seemed ripped from the short stories of Flannery O’Connor.  Their eyes and expressions told stories- or at least that was what I imagined.  I felt that in being in physical proximity to these people, I could know their pasts and fabricate their futures.  Never once did I break character, I just watched…

I was born in the northwestern suburbs of Illinois and grew up with one other sibling.  The American dream realized my parents provided a secure and nurturing environment protecting me from many of the social ills, but never from the knowledge that I was different from my contemporaries.  At seven my father relocated the family to Germantown, Tennessee.  Having had the opportunity to attend a Blue Ribbon middle and high school, I was encouraged to explore my creativity.

After completing high school, I received my B.F.A. from Memphis College of Art and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana.