I'm a Lebanese-American Southerner by birth. My maternal grandmother, a lifelong painter, encouraged my first recorded stab at art when I was five. The result…a big red Choo-choo train about to run over two blissfully ignorant children…still hangs over my father's desk.
The autumn of 2003 saw a transition from my lifetime regional roots to the US Pacific Northwest. I continue to be, as some say when delighted, "tickled" to explore new territory, within and without.
As a working artist since 1990, I've-
-Placed over 475 works, through private clients, galleries and publicists, in homes across the Eastern US, in California, Washington State, and Singapore. A number of collectors have purchased and/or commissioned suites of pieces.
-Worked with merchants and media to create illustrations, cartoons and logos, among them a full-fledged ad campaign for an Atlanta residential community.
-Frequently and gladly donated works and proceeds to charities for awareness and prevention in the arenas of child abuse, substance abuse, HIV and cancer, censorship, and in support for funding of arts organizations.
Other work and activities have clearly informed my practice:
Jewelry design, repair and sales
Landscape design and installation
Advertising and fashion: modeling/commercial work
Wholesale and retail merchandising
Non-profit musical theater: all aspects of production and performance; 2 years as chair of entertainment for a regional conference.
Even professional housekeeping sharpens the arranging and refining eye, provides an endless array of everyday objects to ponder, and furnishes a useful antidote to creeping snobbery.
