Not speaking a word of English, I came to America as a toddler with my parents and older brother. Uprooted by the Second World War; they had somehow survived in Soviet Asia. I was born in a refugee camp.

By the time we came to America, my parents were in their forties. They dreamt I would be a doctor - but in a high school art teacher offered such positive feedback that I shifted focus and wanted to go to art school.

My father's response was “you're not Rockefeller's daughter.”

Yet, despite his reservations he sent me to art school (taking out loans to supplement the Regents Scholarship I'd earned, and then quietly repaying those loans himself).

Which brings us here to Moonlighting - creating art in the space carved out after a day of working for a living. Now, I understand what 'not being Rockefeller's daughter' really means.

Yet I continue to make art, defining and recording my life - working in a variety of mediums; the creativity inherited from my father, and developed through his kind and generous support.

In June of 2020, I began a series of watercolor portraits I titled “Say Their Name / Black Lives Matter.” After painting nearly 300 portraits of men, women, and children who had died unjustly - I did a series of portraits of George Floyd - on the anniversary of his death. Six of those portraits are included here.