My Story

One of my fondest childhood memories were the Saturday morning art enrichment classes at the Toledo Museum of Art. Each summer had a different theme, which was paired with part of the permanent collection in the museum: Egyptian, medieval, and Dutch are three I remember distinctly. I loved art and had an aptitude for it, but, growing up in a small town surrounded by dairy farms, I didn’t have any idea how one could make a living as a visual artist, so I made plans to go to medical school. The biochemistry degree was almost finished, but I fell in love with orchestra, and had to make a choice. I plowed straight through ten years of music performance training, finishing bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees in bassoon, which led to me to Mississippi where I was a professor and now play bassoon and contrabassoon with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra. Because I didn’t receive formal training in visual arts, I consider myself a self-taught artist.