When I was five years old,  my mother took me and my three siblings from our home in the countryside of France to the Louvre. I was completely transfixed by the paintings and sculptures. From then on that was what I wanted; to learn to paint. Years later, after one year at Pratt Institute I wanted to travel again. I worked as a waitress one summer to earn the money, hopped a ship to Europe and at 18 years old, hitch-hiked through Europe, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Russian Romania, finally stipping in Florence, Italy to live with my mother and two siblings. It was there that I learned by word of mouth about Studio Simi, taught by Signorina Nerina Simi. She had learned from her father, Filadelfo Simi, who had studied under Gerome. Among his students was Pietro Annigonni. I felt like I found my spiritual Home. It was not an atelier, where you start with drawing from casts and copying Bargue drawings. We started immediately with working from the live model with all the complexities and pitfalls that entails. We were taught to observe; to look and to see.  Look, mark, look again, mark again. Two to three weeks were spent on each drawing. After my family went back to the US, I rented a studio apartment on the Via Panicale. Every morning I rode my bike to Studio Simi on the Arno River from 9 am to 12 noon. Italians know how to live; they have a two hour lunch. I had time to stop at the open air market for cheese and vegetables for my lunch, then back to Studio Simi for painting from 2 to 5. Life does not get better. Studio Simi remains my rock. Today I combine the skills of observational painting I learned there with those of painting from imagination.

Charcoal and white chalk drawings from days at Studio Simi; "Giovanni", "Figure Side View"