I wore many different creative hats as a child:  street newspaper publisher, family portraitist, greeting card designer, playwright and director, home-museum curator, and, of course, voracious reader and incurable doodler.  By the third grade, I’d decided I was going to be a children’s author and illustrator when I grew up.  By the eighth grade, I figured out that I should therefore major in art and English, so I did, at the University of Dayton.  A desire for gainful employment (and a large helping of wanting to save the world) led me to spend the two years after graduation as a full-time volunteer, in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and Public Allies.  These days, my gainful employment involves college students, community service, and the University of Cincinnati.  But I’m still an artist, beneath that respectable exterior, and I’m still tied to that third grade dream.  So I present my illustration portfolio to you, O world.  May you find something to enjoy!

All work featured here was created in pastels on textured paper.   If you’d like to see what I’m currently working on, visit my blog, The Finest Muffins and Bagels in All the Land.

I love trees, the Cincinnati Reds,  apple cider, cilantro, black raspberry chip ice cream, farmers’ markets, garage sales and thrift stores, literacy, the novels of Barbara Kingsolver and E.L. Konigsburg, the paintings of Marc Chagall and Mary Grandpre, public transportation, The Westing Game, The West Wing, porch swings, comfortable shoes, and lists.  Also, my family and friends.