I have always been drawn to illustrations, so I mostly paint personalities and characters in the context of a suggested story. My ideas are drawn from history and literature; my family roots in Finland, as well as Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. I love vintage clothes and costumes.
I’m also an Anglophile because I spent my junior year of college in Oxford, England and was smitten for life and have been back five times so far. The British predilection for horses and dogs, costume drama, tweeds, bare knees and pastoral vistas, as well as tea pots, porcelain figurines and clotted-cream on scones are all shared passions.
I majored in Pre-Archaeological-Greek Studies at St. Olaf College and, after graduation, studied life-drawing and oil painting at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Madison and Platteville. I have also taken painting workshops with Tim Tyler, Jeremy Lipking and Mary Pettis. I just completed a novel about events leading up to the Trojan War. I love traveling to archaeological sites and art museums in Europe.