I began my art career as a sculptor after receiving a BA in art history from Brown University and an MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin. I joined the faculty of the Art Department at the University of Tennessee where I taught from 1965 to 1999. In Knoxville I found unexpected opportunities: design and fabrication of liturgical furnishings for a synagog and a church; the interiors of 5 restaurants, set design for a modern dance company (over 15 years); and commissioned large-scaled sculptures for several public buildings and civic spaces.

As a sculptor I won the Rome Prize for 1981.

Gradually I moved away from the physicality of sculpture and toward the expression of inner life through flatter layered images using paint and drawing media. This has been my practice for about the last 20 years, and it is this work that I have exhibited first at Sonia Zaks Gallery and then Perimeter Gallery—both in Chicago.