Much of my poetry emerges from my artwork. In my sketch diaries, I would jot down lines… notes on what I wanted to convey in the drawing. One day, a friend was looking at one of my sketch diaries and said she liked the poems with the pictures. Before then, I didn't even realize I was composing poetry.

I have always drawn. Hand me paper and something to write with and I would draw. But, the reason I'm artist is because my father took me to a gallery or a museum when I was seven or eight. In that gallery, there was a painting there in which the eyes seemed to be looking straight at you no matter from what angle you looked at it. I wanted to draw eyes like that. From that moment, I NEEDED to create eyes like that in my art.

The booster to really make me do it was my father. I looked up at that painting and told him I was going to learn to "do eyes like that." His response – in all sincerity as if he was delivering and incontrovertable truth to save me pain and disappointment – was, "But sweetie, there are no girl artists." That made me angry… and determined. I did learn to "do eyes like that."