My artistic life began quietly — colored pencils, a sketchbook, a few stolen hours from a twenty-year real estate career. That small beginning evolved into a deeper practice, moving through acrylics and into oil painting. When I retired, I enrolled in the Milan Art Institute's Mastery Program, where I found my voice in wildlife abstract realism: a style that lets me paint animals not just as subjects, but as living expressions of strength, spirit, and character.