When I was four years old, I had a vision of what was beyond our everyday world and it affected my whole life. Perhaps, at the time, it was a bit scary and I shut it out of my memory, not to resurface until I was 33 years old. When I was growing up, artistic ability was classified as less important than more realistic means of making money — such as business. So, I pursued a career as a stock analyst and investment manager. After awhile, the sense that something was missing in my life could no longer be ignored, and I began a long search for a role that fit me better. The day that I saw Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Series, at the SFMOMA in 1991, is the day that I “got” art. Having grown up in Southern California, I connected with his art in a way that made something crack open inside of me, and I knew that art would be my medium of expression.