Cafe Conversation Painting

I was born and raised in Southern California. I am a full time artist and photographer living in Dallas, TX now.My brain made me an artist. I blame it.My Grandfather taught me how to draw and make things out of wood. He was almost blind.My mother loved that I was an artist. She died in 1988. She was very funny. My teachers and fellow students saw me as 'the artist'.I never considered being anything else, ever.My father allowed me to pursue what I wanted. He is almost 90. I emphasized printmaking, drawing, and photography in undergrad and graduate school.I have had 1 one-person show, 1 two-person show and numerous group shows. I won some competitions, some grants, awards, etc. I have been published in some magazines, newspapers, etc.My work started out in grad school as photo-realist drawings. I liked the photos better by themselves so I started doing photography and photo-collage on its own. That is my primary medium currently.I continued to draw and paint, but from live models not photos, with imagined narrative imagery behind the portrait.I also started doing some commissioned photo-shoots; black and white portraits and figures.I left teaching and went into computer art. I moved, along with my family, to Oklahoma to get my first job in that industry. I created Educational CDroms for kids, and that led to Internet Design. I stopped creating large scale works or exhibiting my work during an 11 year period in which I worked and helped raised my 3 daughters. I did, however, continue to create a large amount of artwork on a small scale, including the napkins series. (see website)When my youngest graduated from High School my plan was to re-enter the art world as a practicing, exhibiting artist.