I have been drawing for as long as I can remember.  I grew up in Florida in the small country town of Oviedo.  That means I am some kind of a Southernah,  there everyone calls me, “Penny.”

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As a child, I remember my Mom hanging paintings of flowers on the walls, just flowers because it was hard to find paintings of Black people in the 60s.  One day, Mom brought home a Southern Living magazine, which featured an article called "Jericho.”  Jericho was a display of incredible renaissance paintings of Black people like I know Black people.  I was inspired by that article.  So, I started drawing pencil images of all kinds of people; I asked God to help me draw exact likenesses; He did just that!  Later, I discovered charcoal, which is an artistic adventure.  I enjoy the enthusiasm in paintings, but I love the intensity of charcoal. 

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I like creating images of people; people are fascinating in the way they look, smile, move, and you can easily see life in their faces.  Art inspires me to see beauty in everything, flowers, trees, dogs, pies, smiles, and especially people.  Just like Barbara Streisand sings... “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”  That's me, lucky Penny!