Bio
Art has always been an immense and enthralling part of my life. The fascination began when I started drawing at an elementary level. This progressed during high school where I was able to take college credit courses. I realized during this time that I wanted to pursue art as a career and I entered Palm Beach Community College in the early 90’s and received a AA degree in Advertising Design. At this point I did some freelance commercial art logos for local businesses. This eventually extended into designing T-shirts for professional lifeguarding competitions and their fundraisers, with which I was very involved.
After spending many years on the beach lifeguarding I realized that advertising design wasn’t the direction that I wanted to take. I enjoyed the outdoors along with a more hands on approach to art. I went back to school and started attending classes and became passionate about painting . With this new passion , I had to decide what avenue to take as a career. I decided on art education and enrolled in the education program at Florida Atlantic University.
After about a year at school an opportunity arose to move to California, and in 1997, I found myself in Los Angeles. Eventually my life led me to Santa Barbara where in 1999 I was accepted and began my degree in fine arts at the University of California Santa Barbara. During this time I was awarded a scholarship for a program called Artsbridge. Artsbridge is a program for college art students to work in K-12 classrooms and teach the children and teachers artistically designed lesson plans. This program is needed because many primary schools today do not have art, music, or theater programs in their everyday curriculum. Consequently, that is why this is such a crucial state funded program.
In 2001, I accomplished my goal and received my BA degree in Fine Arts and a minor in Art History. Fortunately, fate was near and after my graduation I received my first mural job with a local faux finisher. I was graciously taken under her wing and shown the many techniques of faux, metal and wood finishes. I worked predominately in the Montecito area.
During this same time I also held a job with the Children’s Creative Project. ”The CCP is a unique nonprofit arts education organization that brings together young people with professional artists. This interaction enables children to develop artistic perception, creative expression, aesthetic valuing and understanding of artists, the creative process and historical and cultural arts heritage.” This program enabled me to teach at various schools in Santa Barbara and throughout Santa Maria County.
The CCP also produces the annual I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival of which I have participated in as an artist for the past 4 years. In Santa Barbara, this festival attracts around 30,000 visitors who view more than 150 chalk paintings created by local artists.
In the beginning of 2003 to the present, I’ve concentrated on my own business called Art Alchemy. My clients reside from Santa Barbara to Malibu and as far north as Mammoth. I work in both residential and commercial spaces doing both interiors and exteriors. While very familiar with using the “old Italian villa style” wall finish, I also enjoy developing my craft to a more contemporary style, such as in Elements restaurant. (photos available in gallery section.) In addition to creating aesthetically pleasing spaces, my skill enables me to finish and refinish cabinetry and other furniture pieces. My technique involves a broad range from antiqueing and decorative to contemporary finishes.
Another method I specialize in is trompel’Oeil and decorative borders accents. I also have a strong background in consulting for color design throughout your home or in an individual space, which is complimented by my experience in fast and reliable painting for solid colors as well as the specialty finishes. One artistic avenue which brings me great satisfaction is creating murals in children’s rooms. Nothing delights me more than seeing a child’s face light up as he or she sees their own specialized creative room. For my future plans, I would like to elevate the idea of residential children’s murals and bring it into commercial spaces, such as children’s wings in hospitals, libraries, and schools.
I look forward to taking all my past experiences and projects and using that knowledge to create stunning and captivating spaces in the future. If you have any questions regarding my work or if you would like to commission me to do an individual painting, please visit the contact information page. Thank you for being interested and taking the time to read my bio.
