As a teen-ager I studied music privately and loved being in the band in high school. I never thought of drawing until I was around 30 years old. One night a group of us went to a club in DC and a woman was dancing to jazz music. On each table was a soda can filled with something like rice that we could shake. I remember thinking I could make something that would look better so I started saving soda cans and painting on them. I didn’t know how to draw or paint so I created faces using combinations of lines and circles in multiple colors of acrylic paint. About a year later I took my first drawing class and afterward I knew I was ready to learn to paint. For a few years I studied painting – mostly interiors – at Washington Studio School in DC. The painting above is one I created during my time there. The teacher would set up a still life/interior that we would work on for a couple of weeks. I learned about the relationship between objects in a composition, the influence that color and temperature have, and how to use oil paint. This was a great start for my painting journey and ever since I have been working on these skills and more.