My interest in art began when…
I started painting/drawing when I was a child – like most children do, I suppose. But I took it somewhat seriously at a young age. My mother did beautiful watercolor paintings of landscapes, and I used to watch her for hours, completely enthralled; I was probably about four or five years old.

My work is…
A cross between figurative painting and fashion illustration. My biggest influences are post-expressionist painters, and I incorporate fashion in my work because it is very relevant and ubiquitous in today’s world and it should therefore occupy a place in art.

Subjects I’m most drawn to…
I have always been drawn to figures and faces; it is very rare that I make a painting that doesn’t depict at least one figure. I also like to add organic elements to my paintings, so often my figures are holding a branch, flower, feather or something else. The figure is a tool that I use to draw people in. For me, drawing a figure is like bringing something to life; even though they’re kind of strange and otherworldly, they do have a certain sensitivity that makes them seem very human. Sometimes when I am drawing a face, even I feel pulled in by it as I am creating it, by this mysterious allure in the eyes. I don’t know if I could achieve that with an abstract painting, landscape, or still life…

When I work, I begin with…
It depends. If it’s a complex piece it will require some visual research, so I’ll search online for things that I want to include — a certain chair, or textile, clothing, plants… But if I am just working spontaneously I begin with a rough sketch of the face and neck (this just takes a second) and then those become paths from which every other line leads. I try not to plan the position of the figure before I begin drawing so that the lines just flow naturally and take form.

My art influences…
Picasso’s blue/rose period; New Objectivity portraiture, especially Christian Schad and Otto Dix; early fashion illustrators like Georges Lepape and Paul Iribe; turn-of-the-century Viennese graphic design and illustration, especially Mela Koehler postcards; Byzantine art; and classical sculpture.