I was born on May 8th, 1954, in San Antonio, TX. My family moved to Houston when I was 5 and we finally settled in Pasadena when I was 7. I picked up a paintbrush around 12 years old when my older sister's boyfriend was giving her lessons in oil painting. I enjoyed this, but I went to photography in my junior year of high school, moving on to the journalism staff with the school newspaper and yearbook. I won numerous awards in interscholastic competitions and was offered a small scholarship at San Jacinto College in Deer Park, TX. I enlisted into the United States Marine Corps one year after graduating and spent most of my three-year enlistment at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA. While there, I was assigned to catch human interest shots of recruits' lives and several visiting dignitaries. I had the honor of meeting Pappy Boyington once. Two of my photos were selected by my superiors and sent to the Marine Corps Archives at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. I was privileged to have studied under Doug Sweet, Susan Budge, and Mike Ugger and now I reside in Kingman, AZ, constantly working on my craft.