I know now that I was born an artist.

I can still see my mother's facial expression as she observed me one day, sitting in the backyard, staring at the hot midday summer sun, trying to feel the heat as I painted a cactus plant. She called me "Van Gogh" and told me how nuts I had become and that it would not be long before I, too, would cut off my ear.

By the way, I lived in New Jersey and never did see a cactus plant until I moved to California.

Over the years art has become my main focus in life. I share the passion with the artists who have come before me, driven to capture nature's incredible and elusive beauty and in awe of her fleeting sparkle of light on a rose or the many colors in the bark of a tree.

I feel blessed that I can see the world through these eyes, although many times the results of my work are not what I see, but how I feel inside when painting.

This I believe, is why I say I was born an artist, since art touches me in so many ways and has become the source of my being.