About

I was born in Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and was raised in Normal, Illinois, a centrally located college town. I come from a family of academics: my grandfather was a paleontologist at UC Berkeley; my father, a professor of Education, retired from Illinois State University; one of my aunts is a sociologist at the University of Chicago; and the other aunt is a geologist at Cal State Fullerton. Both of my parents received master’s degrees from UCLA.

I showed a talent for art at an early age and in high school decided to pursue it as a profession with the goal of working in the entertainment field as a storyboard artist. To that end, I earned an associate’s degree in Art from Heartland Community College; a bachelor’s degree in 2-D Fine Arts from Eastern Illinois University with a minor in Creative Writing; and a Master’s in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco with an emphasis in Comic Book Illustration. I continue to take classes to increase my skills and broaden my expertise.