I have always been an artist, I loved to draw and paint as a child. At the age of 16, I was given the opportunity to intern under a professional artist Margarita Leon for 15 years. In Margarita's studio, I was allowed work in any type of medium I chose. I learned how to paint with most types of paint, draw and build clay sculptures.

I quickly gravitated towards ceramics, building with clay felt easy and natural to me. When I first began building my sculptures, I built them solid and cut them into pieces to hollow them out and later put them back together. This was a very long laborious process that took months. This also often caused damage to the original design that was difficult to correct. Later, I learned to build them hollow using slabs and coils. This cut the time in half and helped me to build a bit more freely. I don’t often use glaze, or if I do, it's in very small amounts. I like to have complete control of how the colors turn out and I don’t always like the shiny, glass look that glaze creates, therefore the majority of my work is painted with oil paints. My sculptures are precious to me and, in my eyes, they take on a life of their own as I build them and I start to think of them as their own little person. I have had the most success with selling my sculptures and I feel that they are my strongest artistic medium.

I have alternated between painting and sculpture for most of my life and recently have begun photography as well. I love painting and the process of making my paintings is very emotional for me, the colors and shapes represent my feelings and creating them helps calm and sooth me when things feel chaotic. Besides creating my own work, I have also collaborated with other artists on a couple of mural projects in Portland. I usually paint in layers, starting with acrylic and sometimes adding oil paint over the top to create more translucency. I am interested in colors and how they work together and the emotional impact they have on the viewer. I like to create designs that have a lot of movement and guide your eye through the painting. I don't usually have a set plan for my paintings and it often takes a long time and many revisions for me to have a painting that “feels” right to me.

Being part of Margarita’s studio also gave me the chance to learn how to hang shows in galleries, and show and sell my own work professionally. I also learned how to work with children and to teach various artistic techniques, I later took these skills and began working as a high school art teacher. Since then I have shown my work in several galleries in the Portland area and have had some success selling my sculptures. I would really love the chance to be able to show my work, it is something I haven’t had the opportunity to do for a while and it helps motivate me to keep creating.

I have only included recent work that I have not sold yet on this page. If you would like to see historical work I can show that as well. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.