My mother’s parents emigrated from Southern Italy to New York in the 1920s and my father’s from Hungary - and like many emigrants they came through Ellis Island in search of a better life. A deep connection to my Italian grandparents combined with my search for a simpler and different life, brought me to Rome years ago. My goals were to hone my artistic skills in oil painting and to live more creatively. I sold everything and left behind a familiar life. When I embarked on a temporary adventure to experience a culture that I thought I was familiar with, I discovered that Italy was not at all as I thought it would be, yet much more than I could have imagined.
I was born and raised in Queens, New York and lived for many years in Manhattan and Chicago, two great cities special in their own ways. I started exhibiting my work in Chicago and have sold to private collectors. I have taught visual art for the past 15 years in unconventional places: from programs funded by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim in New York to teaching very ill children in hospitals and poor areas in Chicago and to Italian children in this ancient, wonderful city. Children provide an honest and different way for me to view reality. They are part of what ignites me daily and keeps me young. I continue to explore, teach and learn from all that engulfs and surrounds me on a daily basis. Current projects that inspire me are: the Spirit of animals in Rome, legends and myths, and recently poems by famous poets who died in Rome such as Keats and Shelley. I am using various mediums such as oil, watercolor to wood sculptures from wonderful Rome pine trees. Because I lived in big cities all my life, my Italian experiences and exposure to nature have been life-altering. I spend part of my time in Italy and part in the United States. |