I come from a family of artists -- on my mother’s side, and except for her father, all women. I won my first art contest in the second grade, and so it began for me. I was encouraged, through high school, until my father refused to pay for art school. “Go to secretarial college, so you can make a living,” he said. I politely declined, and later, with the help of my new husband, spent a few years with kindred souls at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. A move to New England provided the opportunity to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. After a 37-year career in federal service, I retired as an illustrator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. So now I explore media, teach at Anne Arundel Community College and take as many art classes as I can.