My love of art and storytelling began with my fascination of the octagonal tile patterns tessellating the floor of my childhood room, and my father’s nightly poetry readings. One of my teachers, artist Corita Kent, combined both words and images in her artwork and inspired me to do the same. While majoring in art at UCLA, I continued to explore design which carried into my illustration/design career and eventually led me to picture books.

As an author, artist and illustrator, I am interested in connecting people to one another, and to the environment. My pictures books reflect these interests. Smelling Sunshine is about one world doing an ordinary chore of hanging laundry that becomes extraordinary in its night time comfort (Star Bright Books, 2013). A Stick Until… follows a stick on its transformational journey as a tool (Star Bright Books, July, 2017). And my newest picture book, So Many Ways To Be a Bird, (Star Bright Books, October 2024) is an appreciation of the variety of bird life and the brilliant adaptations that led to such diversity.

My images often combine paint and paper, a process reminiscent of the hours I spent as a child making paper dolls and the stories that went with them. These days I design papers and collect bits and pieces of everything to use with other media in my illustrations and artwork.

In addition to my children’s books, I have worked in scientific and commercial illustration, and in graphic design. My work has been featured throughout the San Diego Zoo, at Boston Children’s Hospital, in science journals, cookbooks, and children’s magazines, and at California galleries and the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. As a naturalist interpreter at Audubon Canyon Ranch, I am certified through the California Naturalist program at UC Davis. It has been a great joy to teach art and develop art curriculum at the elementary, high school and college levels. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and tend to a garden that doubles as a day spa for birds.

Clients & Exhibitions include:
Star Bright Books, Cricket Magazine, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park, San Diego Museum of Natural History, San Diego Audubon Society, Boston Children’s Hospital, Sunset Publishing, Berkeley Art Center, Cal State University Northridge, Colorado Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Sun Gallery, Hayward CA, Village Art Theatre, Danville CA, 1337 Gallery, San Rafael CA, Guild of Natural Science Illustrators  Exhibitions, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek CA, Diablo Valley College.