I attended the American
Academy of Art in Chicago for a time, and subsequently transferred to the undergraduate art program at Northern Illinois
University. After leaving NIU, I worked in fine art, focusing on charcoal, pen and ink
drawings, and watercolor. I then decided
to pursue a degree program in anthropology. As I
earned my degrees, I worked in a biology prep lab which led to a
sideline in scientific illustration. While I was working on my
master's degree in physical anthropology, I was called upon to
produce a number of illustrations of fossil human and nonhuman
primates, including illustrations for
popularized publications such as Newsweek and Popular Science. My own research
in physical anthropology involved functional anatomy and locomotion
in early fossil humans, and a number of illustrations pertained to my
work on that issue. I am now working exclusively in fine art.