As a child growing up in suburban New Jersey, my Sicilian-born grandmother named Rosie taught me how to sew. She could not read English, so she managed to design and sew garments via the pictures contained in the pattern instructions. Being four years old at the time, I followed the pictures as well and continued to rely on visual literacy after I learned how to read. It is this process of coordinating shapes, colors and textures that instructs my thinking in my work as well as conceptually influences my imagery. As a California resident for nearly twenty years, I have designed and planted five gardens, which have been the formalist or metaphoric subject matter for most of my floral paintings over the years. My new series entitled "Balance" contains people who are my close friends and family.