After learning calligraphy in high school in the Bronx,
I graduated from college with a degree in Art and began teaching calligraphy through adult education programs and art centers in upstate NY. I continued my calligraphy studies in workshops with Hermann Zapf (designer of the typefaces Optima, Palatino and Zapfino) and other master calligraphers. After moving to Arizona I studied with Dick Beasley who hired me to take over teaching his beginning calligraphy classes at Northern Arizona University.

I began selling calligraphy prints in 1985 with a line of xeroxed, hand-painted prints in gift stores. With the advent of color copy machines I expanded my line to full color reproductions and sold prints through the Red Rose Collection and other catalogs. In 1996 I founded Ink Monkey Press to sell my prints online.

Teaching has been one of my passions and I continue to do that in workshops around the country. I have taught at Ghost Ranch and at several international calligraphy conferences. My work has been in many juried art and calligraphy shows including the Letter Arts Review annual competitions. My solo exhibit in Santa Rosa, California in 2011 showcased both original poetry and my paintings inspired by the poems.

My articles and artwork have been published in the Alphabet and Bound and Lettered magazines, in several books including “The Art & Craft of Hand Lettering” by Annie Cicale, and I was the art director and calligrapher for Homesteaders News for nine years. My recent book, co-authored with Anthony Lawlor, “Two As One: Poems from a New Love,” includes twelve calligraphic paintings along with our poetry.

When I’m not creating art, writing poetry or doing the thousand and one tasks it takes to be a self-employed artist — including designing this website — I love vegetable gardening, going to farmer’s markets, walking in the California hills, exploring the wine country and finding four-leaf clovers.