Having been influenced by a gamut of talented artist since childhood, I developed a love of art. Norman Rockwell mesmerized me, as I stared at the fine detail and laughed at the whimsical humor he evoked through his paintings. Later, artists like Claude Monet swept me away into the fantasy of soothing landscapes. The vibrancy of Jacob Lawrence’s work and the emotion of his pictorial tales created an interest in art history, which later would manifest in my first series of portraits.