I come from a long heritage of artists, tracing back to my great-great and great grandfathers, skilled draftsmen and professional lithographers in New York, to my grandfather, a watercolorist, to my mother, a professional portrait, landscape and still-life artist in Maine.  I received a B.A. from Amherst College in Fine Arts, and a M.F.A. Degree in Painting from Boston University, with further training in master painting techniques at the New England Realist Art Center and the Teaching Studios of Art in New York.  I was awarded the Nan Foundation European Traveling Scholarship for Painting.

Additionally, I research and write about the Ancient Mediterranean and Medieval Middle Eastern worlds, towards a historical novel about female scholarship, creativity, passion and invention, with a related painting project on the theme of women and transformation. I recently completed a master's thesis in Religion at Harvard Extension School on the symbolic meanings of female burial diadems from ancient Egypt, and afterlife beliefs and potential for women at Giza.