Art has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. For many years, I painted alongside a demanding career as an actuary, my sketchbooks and paints offering a quiet counterbalance to numbers and analysis. Over time, the two worlds began to complement each other: precision and pattern on one side, color and rhythm on the other.
I now share much of my work through my Fine Art America Store, where my paintings are available as prints, greeting cards, mugs, pillows, and other keepsakes.
Artist’s Statement
I’m drawn to urban sketching, collage, watercolor, and mixed-media works on paper. I’m active in the Urban Sketchers community, the Sketch Club at The Cliff Dwellers in Chicago, and the art program at The Admiral at the Lake, where I live. My subjects range from city scenes to figures, flowers, landscapes, and abstracts, all united by a desire to express emotion and capture the essence of what I see.
Color and line are my language. I experiment with shapes, texture, and movement, combining found elements — papers, photographs, bits of cardboard, even patterns from security envelopes — with watercolor, oil pastel, and ink. Each piece is a conversation between spontaneity and structure.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Over the years, I’ve exhibited my work in a variety of venues. In 2024, I had a solo show at The Admiral at the Lake Art Gallery in Chicago. Earlier, my paintings Skystory and Jazz Band were featured in the Later Impressions exhibits at the Chicago Cultural Center (2011 and 2013). I’ve also shown at Lake Street Gallery, Inside Art, and Gypsy’s Cove Restaurant.
As I’ve scaled back consulting, I’ve devoted more energy to painting and am seeking new opportunities for gallery exhibitions while continuing to sell my art privately.
Artuaries Project
Two of my collages, Skystory and A Big Hole, were part of Artuaries, a special project created by actuaries who also make art. Each of the seven participating artists contributed two works for a set of greeting cards, with proceeds benefiting the Actuarial Foundation. The project is no longer active, but it remains a meaningful intersection of my two worlds — art and actuarial science.
The Story Behind the Art
My creative process often begins with photography reflections, patterns, shadows, and repeated images found in everyday life. I’m fascinated by the rhythm of architecture: the curves of an iron fence, the lattice of a balcony, the mirrored shapes of downtown buildings. Once, while experimenting with a new camera in Denver, I discovered how reflections could become their own subject. Since then, I’ve chased those moments everywhere I go.
Travel deepens that exploration. I always carry a sketchbook, planning my days around opportunities to draw. Later, I might add watercolor or collage, turning sketches into layered memories of place.
Nature, too, offers endless material — the patterns in bark, coral, mushrooms, or the geometry of a leaf. I find wonder in clouds seen from an airplane window, the mosaic of stones in Chicago’s Lurie Garden, or the shadows cast by the Getty Museum’s gardens. Everyday objects, even a Lego display, can spark new compositions.
My recent work often groups into series: Collages, Sky, Nature, Flowers, Parades, and Travel Memories. Each piece is a quiet study of how patterns, visual or emotional, connect the worlds we live in.