Biography

 

I spent a decade in New York City completing my formal art education, earning a BFA in Drawing from Pratt Institute, an MFA in Painting from Hunter College (CUNY), and ultimately a Doctorate in Studio Practice from New York University. During my doctoral work, I began integrating Existential theory into my artistic process and became increasingly aware of the expressive power of materials themselves. This led me to begin making my own paper—seeking a synthesis of surface, material, and image that continues to shape my work today.

Around 2008, my interest in Renaissance art resurfaced. Gold leaf became both a visual and symbolic language in my Notes on Paradise series, created as a meditation following my father’s death. Through this work, I came to understand how deeply my materials and processes resonate with my personal and cultural history. My maternal great grandfather, an Italian sculptor who fled Mussolini’s persecution of artists, immigrated to New York in 1929 and later taught sculpture at The Cooper Union. As a child, I spent summers in the town in Italy where my grandmother was born, and later lived in Venice during part of my doctoral study—experiences that immersed me in the art of the masters and the legacy of my own family.

My grandmother and her sister, both seamstresses, profoundly shaped my worldview and artistic sensibility. Their home glowed with candlelight reflecting off sacred images, instilling in me an early understanding of the power of imagery and the presence of mysticism in daily life. Working with paper, fabric, and fiber in my studio practice is, in many ways, a return to them and that sacred space.

In the 1990s, I moved to the Pacific Northwest and spent over a decade living in wilderness areas near Mt. Shasta, California, and Mt. Ashland, Oregon. I have taught studio art and art history at colleges and universities on both coasts, receiving the Faculty Recognition Award from Lane Community College in 2013 and the John and Suanne Roueche/League for Innovation Award for Excellence in Teaching and Leadership in 2015. I currently live, teach, and maintain my studio practice in Eugene, Oregon.

Publications | 2022 – 2025

  • Artspeak: Strategies in Visual Literacy, 2nd edition, Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2025
  • Drawing as Process, drawing text, Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2022

Collaborative Projects and Community Partnerships | 2016 – Present

 

Collaborative Studio Work: The Logos Project

In 2016, I began collaborating with photographers Bob Williams and Ed Dasso to launch the Logos Project, a studio-based initiative devoted to multidisciplinary and improvisational artistic exchange. The project continues today, fostering creativity through ongoing collaboration and experimentation.

 

ArtCity and Civic Partnerships

The following year, in 2017, I joined the ArtCity team in partnership with the City of Eugene. Our collective goal was to engage art as a transformative social force, connecting the community through creative practices. I remain actively involved in this work, developing partnerships, particularly with schools, to strengthen art’s role in supporting my community.

 

Community Art Initiatives
  • Artist, Fifth Street Market Community Mural, center mural on the Gordon Hotel, Eugene, Oregon, 2021
  • Teaching-Artist-in-Residence, Lane Arts Council’s ArtSpark program, Eugene, Oregon, 2019
  • Set design & production for “Collaborations 18”, student dance performance “The Space Between Us,” Ragonzzino Performance Hall at Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon, 2018
  • Artist/Organizer, Objects of Affection, in collaboration with ArtCity and the City of Eugene, Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 2017
  • Community Artist Mentor, North Eugene High School, Unity mural, Eugene, Oregon, 2017