I am back to my artistic roots; my father at his drawing board, my high school art award at graduation in 1966, and a scholarship in my third year at the University of Buffalo in Fine Arts.

The 1970’s spelled political upheaval and adventure. I headed down to NYC. For a decade I worked as a model in NYC and lived in Paris. I returned to NY to study acting with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. I moved with them to LA during the winter season to continue my work.. In the 1980’s I also studied in LA with Peggy Feury. After working in the Redford/Farrow “The Great Gatsby” I decided to stay in LA doing various roles in film, television and theater. It was more study and less solid employment, must say.

In 1985 I decided to write the story of my mother’s 16 year journey with Alzheimer’s disease. We lived together in LA. I worked hard at producing my own documentary at a time when the disease was hardly known. “I Know a Song” was completed and aired. It took me a few years and more than a little help from my friends. I gifted it to the Alzheimer’s Association and traveled with it to US and International film festivals. This brand of self expression gave me a stronger sense of myself.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that famed Annie Reinking, my dearest friend who passed in late 2020, was the inspiration for the two documentaries that we created together in 2003 and 2009. “Is it really me?” and “In my hands-A story of Marfan syndrome.” They stand as a collaboration of sharing love for young people’s artistic determination.

In 1989 I married the gifted actor Roy Scheider. We moved to Sagaponack on the East End of Long Island, NY. I continued careers in documentary filmmaking, photography, and the parenting of our children, Christian and Molly Mae Scheider.

In 1996 we were part of co-founding the Hayground School, a multicultural elementary school in Bridgehampton, NY. In its twenty fourth year it remains a hands-on, experiential approach to education and community building.

Whenever I have held still long enough to have a sense of place, I would pull out my paint brushes and paper. Happily the fields and sea of Sagaponack inspired me during those days. Life changed fast when Roy died of Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer, in 2008.

In 2012 I married Sam Neustadt, a renowned architect and recently an iPadPro artist. He had his first one man show in 2019. We settled in Pomfret, Vermont and built a small, energy efficient, “farmhouse” in the hills. He told me, “with your talent, sit down and paint, paint, paint!”

I reignited my affection for the clear beauty of watercolor painting. I loved the feel of the sun on my skin as I painted from the back of my open car, but in November, had my watercolor freeze on the brush as it reached the paper! I have always loved en plein observation of the light and I had trouble going inside. But Sam had constructed a sky-lit studio for me over our garage and I have spread out my palettes on a long work table. My painting technique has been developing, here and on the road.

Our mutual love of travel has taken us around the world, and I have been able to paint in the Bahamas, Asia and Europe. Italy calls to us time and again. We have set up camp to paint in many of its small towns. But our favorite has been the stone cottage of Castelvecchi Vineyards near Radda in Chianti.

Having fallen for Italy in 2016 we rented an apartment from which to work in Venice. In 2019 we rented in Florence to study Italian and paint.

This second year of the pandemic we ventured forth to Paris. With great precautions we ensconced in a tiny apartment on Ile St. Louis in the Seine, “le coeur de paris.” I pulled our dining room table up to the tall windows for light and arranged my palettes. What a joy to return there to paint …