The sixth of nine children, I grew up in Biddeford, Maine within a Franco-American Irish-Canadian household. In a town full of factories among triple decker tenement buildings, we played in the streets. Adulthood blossomed swiftly. After graduating from the nearby Portland School of Art in Printmaking and the University of Southern Maine in Art Education, I traveled west in search of employment. In 1990, I began a teaching career at Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Arizona, a community college dedicated to the preservation of Navajo traditional life. Later, I pursued an MFA at Idaho State University with a focus on wilderness desert landscapes in South Central Utah. After receiving a MFA degree in Painting, I taught in Maine and Utah for five years. Finally, making a home in Magdalena, New Mexico where I taught and continue to reside.