I have been a portrait artist for the past 20 years.  I have always drawn people but as time went on I found another influence that led me in a different direction. I had been volunteering for local animal rescues for about 5 years and I found that while I was fostering dogs that each one had a story to tell.  They all had wonderful, funny and heart inspiring personalities and traits that inspired me to tell just a little bit about them in a childrens book.  I didn't want to tell about their past suffering because we all know about that.  I wanted to tell about something funny or a thought process that made them react in a certain way.  I tell the stories in first person from the dogs perspective so it gives a fun look into the dogs personality.  I started following the dogs around with a camera and capturing just the pose I wanted and then I would work with the photos and my story and draw pictures to go with each tale.  It became so much fun creating the books that I have now completed 7 books and am working on 2 more.  I am now drawing pet portraits from customers photos instead of human portraits.  I am now able to donate part of the preceeds from the sale of my books and portraits back to animal rescues to help with the wonderful work all the volunteers do.

Artist/Author/Illustrator