As a painter, I find I’m improvising in much the same way I improvised with my music. I like the paintings to emerge spontaneously as I go along, and sometimes I'm both surprised and delighted with the outcome. I love to experiment with color and shape, and particularly enjoy working with human and animal forms. The process in itself brings me a great deal of joy which I hope is imparted to the viewer. Resumé: Painting is a second career for Lois Cantor. A child prodigy, she was a professional pianist with degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and Hartt College of Music, and performed for several years in Italy. Her vast knowledge of classical, jazz and gospel music is evident in REFLECTIONS, her CD of original piano improvisations. When tendonitis forced her to give up the piano, she turned to composing music on the computer as well as exploring computer art and painting with various media. The subjects of her acrylic paintings are mostly jazz musicians, animals, and scenes of Italy. Her original artwork has been featured at the Mendocino Art Center, the Richmond Art Center, The French Hotel, Art for AIDS, Bucci's, Bird & Beckett Books, and the Jazzschool Bassment. Her work was also shown at the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater and will be shown in June, 2008 at the Albany Library