About the artist:

Born in New York City on October 31st, Bingham was recognizable as an artist at the age of 6 with her precocious drawings of reflected light and perspective. By 13 Bingham was drawing commissioned portraits. She received her first award for art at 14 and the age of 16 she had already had her first painting stolen. Named a renaissance woman by friends, Bingham's abundant skills and numerous interests have both abetted and interrupted her busy art career.

Bingham attended Syracuse University's College of Art on full scholarship, studying painting and illustration under the tutelage of such artists as Jerome Witkin and Tom Allen.

Serious illness provoked her premature departure from school but was followed by a dramatic recovery and the subsequent decision to join the Army. (Bingham's note: I've never written about that illness before, but it's too involved to go into here. I will say, I had been sick for 16 years. In Syracuse at a Health Food Store named "Nature's Pantry', I met a group of born again Christians who began to teach me what it takes to be healthy. But I remained sick, until one night, after graduating a Bible Class with that group, Jesus Christ met me in my kitchen. First he healed me, then he gave me instructions for life; They were "Join the Army". I went out the very next day and did what he said.

The military chapter of Bingham's life began with 2 grueling months of Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC in the bitter cold of winter of 78', which found the self taught caricaturist knocking out satirical drawings of the drill sergeants [not however, in lieu of pushups]. PVT Bingham was quick to discover that the pen IS mightier than the sword and people of all rank and file LOVE to see themselves in caricature. Her drawings of the 2nd Battalion, Delta Company leadership hung in headquarters for 10 years after her graduation. Bingham is proud to have graduated Ft. Jackson Army Basic as '1st' Female in Physical Fitness, and Combat Medical School at Fort Sam, TX, as the honor graduate of 365 medical students.

Back in NY- when she wasn't drilling as a reservist with a Brooklyn Army Hospital, Bingham supplemented her income by driving a NYC taxi cab. In the best of her 1000's of taxi stories.. Bingham drove all night during a record breaking snow storm [thanks to previous blizzard driving boot-camp, otherwise called Syracuse, NY.. when around 4 in the morning, she was led by a voice from heaven to find a man buried in the snow. She pulled the 75 year old diabetic from what would have been a frozen grave, saving his life. She got to tell the amazing story in Joe Berlinger's [Film Director of Paradise Lost & My Brother's Keeper] classic 1989 documentary film Outrageous Taxi Stories.

Never far from the drafting table Bingham became a full time caricaturist on the tri-state party circuit and drew 'some million & a half' folks faces till 1992 when the urge for something military called. So she 're-upped' and left for Monterey, California to fulfil a lifelong dream to study at The Defense Language Institute.

SGT Bingham's graduated from the Russian Course at DLI - FIRST in her Russian class- 'drawing' a supply of job offers from The US Department of Defense. Bingham selected the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office [DPMO] and went to Washington DC in September of 1994 for an assignment that lasted 3 years. Her most 'memorable' occasion working for DPMO was during a plenury she participated in, in Moscow, Russia, in April, 1995. While sitting in an elaborate hotel banquet room full of military personnel, senators, intelligence officials and dignitaries, the head of the American task force - US Army General Wold, called out to her, 'SGT BINGHAM, SING SOMETHING! So Bingham sang a [beloved of Russia] Laima Vaikule song, recalling later, how forr the first time since she arrived in Moscow, she witnessed a particular KGB agent - smile.

Bingham's proudest accomplishment with DOD was a successful petition to have a Korean War POW Veteran awarded for valor, 43 years after the fact of his heroism in a Korean War POW camp. Bingham's efforts garnered the Army Silver Star for PVT Wayne 'Johnny Johnson', whose remarkable listing of American soldier deaths - kept surreptitiously while in prison at risk to his life, went on to flesh out a Defense Department data base of POW/MIAs. The heroic story is told in the January 1997 Readers Digest first 'Article of Lasting Interest' series entitled simply - 'The List'.

3 years later, when the DOD assignment finally ended, Bingham, ever the artist, picked up her palette and began a career of interior design and decorative art. In 1997 Buon Fresco was born.

This time Faux Finishing became a full-time career and the resulting portfolio speaks for itself. Buon Fresco's work has been displayed in National magazines and newspapers, Home & Garden Television [HGTV] twice and even a Dreamwork's movie. [Head of State with Chris Rock]. Bingham's Venetian Plaster designs have provoked the likes of Traditional Home magazine to remark; We've never seen walls like these!... Sims Bray, the publisher of Veranda Magazine, to say 'Utterly Impressive' and Interior Designer Justine Sancho to call it "The best Venetian Plaster - period!"

Among a total of 6 awards so far, the studio has been awarded the 'Best Walls in the House' [Elizabeth Warnock Prize] for 2 out of 3 National Symphony Orchestra Show Houses and most recently the 2006 Sepp Leaf, NY - 'Pride of Place' Prize for the 'Most Distinguished Venetian Plaster'. One designer who recently engaged Bingham's skills for a collaborative effort, told her it was because she was working on a project that required 'nothing but the best'!

An inventor also with two issued patents to her current credit and several more pending, Bingham's art philosophy is that Art, as any invention, begins with training, then is enhanced in inspirations that only ever come as a result of 'hard work and diligent application.

When asked why she teaches her 'competition' Bingham will say that first of all, she loves to help artists raise their standard of living. A perennial teacher, in New York City Bingham had the nation's only Waiter Training School, called Greater Waiter Training Center', she has taught Bible Studies to adults for over 25 years, and taught art at a High School Art Club in Virginia.