narrative bio

I am a painter of landscapes, icons, and portraits, incorporating straight painting, the mixing of media, and the collage of original photographs, found imagery, and natural objects. I frequently weave text into my images as well. I also write and illustrate books for children.

I was invited to exhibit Souls portraits in May 2005 at Doylestown Library, PA, during a county-wide exploration of depictions of the Holocaust in art and culture, and at Cambridge Hospital, MA, in April 2005 as part of a Healing Art exhibition under the auspices of a Harvard Medical School initiative to integrate medicine and the humanities. I am currently developing the souls portraits into a children's picture book. I have also exhibited these portraits at the Plaut Gallery in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, Cambridge (MA) Multicultural Arts Center(2000), NextMonet.com, Gallery Bershad in Somerville, MA (2000), the Starr Gallery in Newton, MA (99, 2000), Yeshiva University Museum in New York (98), Perkins Gallery in Stoughton, MA (2000), and other galleries in metropolitan New York and New England. This series was awarded two consecutive fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, NYC, in 1998/99 and 1999/2000. Reviews, in several cases featuring photographs, have appeared in The Boston Globe, Jewish Week, and The Jewish Advocate. Soul paintings have been awarded juried prizes at the Chuck Levitan Gallery (Soho, NYC, 1998) and the Cooperstown (NY) Art Association in 1999. My work has been juried into other competitions as well, including Viridian Artists, 57th Street, NY, juried by curator Thelma Golden. I have completed numerous portrait commissions.

My nature paintings feature trees, water, rocks, birds, and butterflies, and were shown in April through July 2003 at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, at the DeCordova Museum's annual benefit exhibition and auction in May 2003, in February 2002 at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education in Harvard Square, and in January 2002 at the Krause Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island. I am a Lending Artist in the Corporate Loan Program of the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, which services corporate offices in the Boston metropolitan area. Paintings are hanging or have hung in the offices of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, One Source Information Services, Bainco International Investors, Nutter, McClennen, & Fish, Cornerstone Research, and others.

Nature Icons were shown in February 2002 at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, in fall 2001 at the Art Connection gallery in Boston, and in summer 2000 at the Plaut Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. They feature birds, insects, leaves. In 2000 I exhibited my Icons series at Gallery Seventy-Nine on Newbury St., Boston, and at the Starr Gallery, in Newton, MA.

I have written and illustrated many picture books including I Only LIke What I Like, published by Bollix Books in August 2003; Love Me Later, a seven year old's afternoon featuring a monarch butterfly; Maybe, in which a crazy cat is destroying the house and only the little girl understands; Lilly Looking, in which a thirteen year old girl mourns a brother's death; World Here I Am, a newborn's prayer; and a young adult novel, Long Drink of Water, which was a quarter finalist in the New Century Writers Award in 2002. One of my book illustrations is to be included in an RSVP exhibition of portraits at the Society of Illustrators in 2004. My portfolio was the winner of the 1997 Don Freeman Memorial Grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. In 1996, my book art was chosen as a finalist in a national self-portrait juried competition, sponsored by RSVP, which published an illustration from Lilly Looking in its directory.

My paintings are held in many private collections. I have donated work to numerous non-profit institutions including Family Service Greater Boston, Yeshiva University Museum, The DeCordova Museum's annual benefit auction, Boston Community Capital, Project Hope, The Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture, Dorchester House, and The Medical Foundation.