My father taught me to use the black Singer sewing machine when I was four years old. Our dolls and bears needed places to live, furnishings and food. Consequently we would create castles and cottages,  cardboard boxes with crenelated towers coated in glue and sand to mimic medieval stucco. It was a dream setting for a creative child with endless materials and tools with which to experiment.We were allowed to use our father's bandsaw and drill press when we were eight - we even had a child sized lathe which afforded the addition of woodworking skills. It was within this unbridled environment of curiosity that I explored as many materials as I could get my hands on. Never a minimalist,  I fell in love with many media and pursued a broad range of decorative and fine arts: from painting, ceramics, needlework and photography to fashion and product design.

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After graduating from Vassar I went to New York City and worked my way through the merchandising program at Macy’s. Wanting to be more involved on the creative side, I was hired by Tommy Hilfiger to work in the design room developing licensed products and mens accessories.  From there I moved to Ralph Lauren and worked in merchandising  for the New England territory.  My next adventure allowed me to travel and shop in the capital cities of Europe while developing private label fashion collections for Talbots and J Peterman.

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It was time to switch my product focus to dress the home and garden.  I wanted to work with pottery and furnishings. Serendipity struck and I was hired to work for The Essex Collection north of Boston as their Director of Product Development and Design. It was heaven designing whimsical dinnerware and accessories while working with the skilled craftsman at factories all over the world. I was in awe of the artistry  that had been polished in those time worn buildings. When my daughter was a young child I realized that my restless life on the road overseas did not work for my growing family and that is when I began my own company as a freelance designer – Robin’s Nest Designs.

I still love to create, and MAKE.  You can find me in my sunny studio revitalizing furniture with colorful patterns and stories, painting pottery with vibrant glazes and a tiny brush, or rendering a commission on paper or canvas in my illustrative style.  Self-taught, I paint the natural world as I see it an a fanciful vocabulary of color and pattern.  My style is decorative and naive, influenced by the traditional folk arts of Eastern Europe and America.