Guest Artist

ARTIST STATEMENT

I was fortunate to have grown up in a rural area near Utica, New York.  From an early age I loved the outdoors.  It was great fun to search the nearby fields and ponds for wildflowers and wildlife in every season.

After becoming a mathematics teacher, I returned to central New York to raise my two daughters. Retiring from teaching in1997, I designed floral arrangements at a local florist shop. This experience aided in giving me an “eye” for color, balance, and composition. While working at the florist shop, a friend asked me to accompany her on a photo trip to the Adirondack Mountains of New York State.  With my first “real” camera what was a wonderful experience photographing wildlife became my passion. Many years later, I continue to love wildlife photography. My work has been published in Florida and New York calendars, and magazines, and has been recognized in New York State as well as Pine Island, Florida photography shows. However the highlight was an exhibition of my wildlife photography in Upstate New York.

As a true amateur wildlife photographer, I could not have achieved success without the aesthetic advice of the owner of the florist shop, and the more technical help from my processor.  Above all, it is most helpful to have an abundance of patience and a sense of humor.  I was reminded of this last spring when photographing a young buck in my backyard.  He wasn’t so handsome and photogenic when I discovered the next day that he had eaten my petunias.