I always knew I wanted to be an artist, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I went to Virginia Commonwealth University and got a BFA in illustration but when I got out of school I realized two things, I wasn’t good enough yet and I had no clue what to do. I then stumbled across the fact that Trader Joe’s grocery stores hired artists and then settled into working for them for almost 15 years. I was doing everything from huge murals to shelf signs. It was a good job and was wonderful place for me to experiment and develop my skills, speed and professionalism, but I always dreamed of my work being in galleries.