About

When I heard Steven Cohen bought the Mets, I couldn't wait to set up my easel at Citi Field  and paint! I have been a baseball fan all my life. 

Steven & Alexandra Cohen are one of America's most renowned art collectors. 

They bought my "Five Donuts with Coffee" painting at a Sotheby's auction in 2018; an annual fundraiser for the N.Y. Academy of Art, my alma matter.  

My dad used to take us to the Omaha Royals games when I was a kid. (The Omaha Royals are the Triple A farm team for the KC Royals)

As a courtesy they would let Omaha policemen and their families in for free. 

My mom, when she was a little girl, used to get into the Chicago Cubs games at Wrigley Field. 

Her dad was an engineer at CBS television. Back in the day, all the games were broadcast live. When the game was over it took some time for the CBS crew to pack up all their equipment. That's when mom and her sister would run around the bases. 

In 2018 I had my first solo show at the University of Connecticut, Stamford, art gallery.  

A retrospective of over 20 years of still life and landscape/ En plain air paintings.  

During the 2000's my paintings were licensed on a variety of products that were sold in major retail stores. One particular design, Ripe from the Vine, was a runaway best seller.

It was reproduced on numerous products including kitchen textiles, coasters, plates, floor matts and ceramic tiles. 

This design became the number one seller on kitchen textiles, oven mitts, towels, floor matts etc, at major retail stores such as 

Linens & Things, Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and other shops across the country.

(Including the BX exchange store in Germany where my niece was serving in the Air Force.)

This decade kept me busy with many food and wine paintings. 

As an alumni of the New York Academy of Art, 

I exhibit and sell my work through their fundraisers including, Sotheby's, Art for Artists, Deck the Halls, the annual Summer Exhibition at Flowers Art Gallery and the Miami Art Fair.  

I am currently working on a coffee table book, "30 Years of Painting Windows in  New York City."

It all started in 1992.  I was living in Brooklyn and had recently graduated from the New York Academy of Art.

  One December evening I was sitting in the local coffee shop, Fortunato's Pastry Shop, with my boyfriend from Brooklyn.

.  

Noticing the paper Santa head cutouts taped to the windows he whispered to me, "They need to get this crap off the windows. Watch me."  

In one fell swoop he ripped a Santa head off,  held it up to Mike Fortunato's face 

and shouted at him, "Why the #&#@ do you have this $&%! on your windows? 

It looks tacky! Are you real Italians or what?!" 

(You have to image these words being shouted in a thick Brooklyn accent.)

He went on to say without warning, "You have a real artist here!  She can PAINT Christmas on your windows!"  

 I didn't know what to say.  I was even a little afraid! The Fortunato brothers were scary to me.  They didn't speak much English and their reputation was of belonging to certain "Italian clubs." 

(I grew up small town in Nebraska.)

 But like most kids out of grad school, I needed to make money! There were student loans to pay off.

What I thought was going to be a part time gig to pay off bills, ended up being steady freelance work for 3 decades.

That is how it all began.