I am an artist, formerly an advertising photographer in Miami, now back to painting, appreciating now the legacy of my family's deeply Southern roots and all its gifts. Food is a life art and the South taught me the value of its connection to warmth and welcome. As a child of the sixties I got very interested in natural foods and for the years when my three children were young, I was a purist: they do not let me forget the natural peanut butter with wheat germ and honey with whatever other healthy powder I could sneak in. In the eighties I traveled all over Canada and the American Rockies with a fellow photographer and a tent. He was a magnificent chef and taught me about cooking over fire, and fresh ingredients. Happy to have grown into the kind of cook my children actually brag about these days, I now love to open up my house up to family and friends, and the satisfaction that comes from knowing they enjoyed each other and the food. Today I am excited by the Local Food and Slow Food movements and hope to encourage more small farmers to locate out on the little island in South Carolina I now call home.