I knew I wanted to create pictures ever since I picked up my first crayon and doodled my premiere landscape on the kitchen wall in my hometown of Vienna, VA. (My mother was not impressed.) At the age of eight, I taught myself to oil paint and worked at it for the next ten years. When high school ended, I wanted art school, but the family was united (a rare occurrence) in their opposition, uttering veiled warnings such as, "You'll sleep under a bridge!" and "You'll starve!" In retrospect, I… more