My earliest recollections of drawing were at three or four years of age. My Armenian Grandfather sat me down with a paper and pencil and suggested I draw the floats from the Rose Parade. He would collect pictures for me to copy and have my pencil and paper at the ready for my first utterance of boredom. Grandmother always had paper dolls, paste, cardboard and scissors.

I was born and raised in Southern California. I grew up among the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on an orange ranch. Beauty surrounded me and isolation gave me my love of drawing the images I wanted to capture. Numerous animals, domestic and wild were taken in, under the protest of my mother, until they were well and released or given a new home. Needless to say we ended up with lots of pets. I painted horses and wildlife in their natural habitat for several years.

In my family, you didn't realize there were any limits to your capabilities. Everything was a work of art, the elaborate meals, the furnishing of the house, the gardens, even the clothes that you wore. From agriculture to genetics to zoology, you learned a little of everything.

Half of my heritage is Armenian and I'm very proud of what they have accomplished in this country. Mother is an artist. Great Grandmother was an artist. My Grandfather, Mother, two brothers are and were cartographers. My too few relatives are inventors, artists, teachers, and businessmen. Half of my Heritage is Old South, a mixture of Scotch, Irish and English, landholders, lumber mills, bookkeepers and fishermen going back to the first immigrants in America.

My love of fish came from my Father and Grandfather. On visits to Florida my Grandfather would bring home fish from his commercial business that they didn't normally sell, just to show me and then throw them back in the water. My father would fish and dive on the California Coast. I remember fishing in the irrigation reservoirs for the giant Goldfish with safety pins and string and putting the fish in the irrigation boxes by the house so I had my own Goldfish Pond to enjoy. Mother and the Grandmothers rounded me out with all of the domestic and gardening skills I would ever need.

Junior High and High School were a culture shock. My teachers were practicing artists and well known locally and nationally. They encouraged me to explore the different avenues of art or fail the classes. I learned to do so many things, sculpting, batick, casting, life drawing, composition, scratchboard, acrylics, abstracts, printing to name a few. They entered my artwork in state shows, where I won numerous awards. I became a commissioned artist at the age of thirteen.

Married at the age of twenty-two my life took a different turn. In the midst of raising three wonderful children, I managed to finish a few commissions, enter a few shows and enter the realm of commercial art. When my youngest child entered first grade, I became a member of the Fine Arts Institute at the San Bernardino County Museum and several other local art associations. I began painting and entering art shows winning numerous awards. I taught programs about endangered species at the local schools and churches to the children with the aid of loans from the Museum. I was chairman of the Wildlife National Show at the San Bernardino County Museum, and juror for a San Bernardino County Museum show. I started the Southern California Wildlife Art Association in 1992. I was a featured artist in Wildlife West in 1993 at the San Bernardino County Museum and two of my children were also in the show winning National Awards in the Junior Duck Stamp Competition.

Christine of Santa Fe in Laguna Beach, California, featured my paintings of wildlife in their natural habitat and paintings of childhood memories. Florals were featured in a gallery in Las Vegas. Local scenes were featured in The Gallery of Great Things in San Juan Capistrano, California. Now my work is also seen at The Sandy Martin Gallery in San Clemente, California, The Seaside Gallery in Dana Point, California, The Roslin Art Gallery in Glendale, California, Twin Worlds Gallery in Hawaii, and the Heritage Foundation Visiting Center in San Clemente, California. My artwork also hangs in public and private collections locally and worldwide.

In 1994 I took a Sabbatical from the pressure of commercial production. Slowly I gained momentum and was inspired to join my local art associations and begin painting again. My current focus is working with mood, color and shapes. Each painting expresses my thoughts about traditional and non-traditional themes. I look to children, unity and nature for my inspiration. My greatest satisfaction is for a viewer to look at my work and say, this makes me feel, and its the mood or feeling I've tried to capture. There is such abundance in our lives everywhere you look, you need to take the time to look and take the time to feel.