Early on in her college career, while helping a friend with a photography class assignment, she discovered a fascination for portraiture and the creative intimacy that develops between the artist and the sitter. She began to study photography, with a particular emphasis on portraiture, and the course of her creative life was set. After earning her degree in photography from San Francisco State in 1987 she began to travel, and it was through travel, and experiencing life far from her hometown, that she began to develop her photographic voice.