Excellence in art has been a defining pursuit in my life since I was very young and figured out I could draw better than most other kids. By my 10th birthday I had started my own neighborhood drawing club in the small Ohio town where I grew up. Spaceships were my favorite subject at the time.
By age 17 I was attending three art classes daily, including an oil painting class at a nearby university, thanks to a wonderful high school art teacher who had taken an interest in my future. My passion continued to grow during those formative years as my self image became more and more wrapped up in my artistic ability. Eventually, my quest for a creative career resulted in a degree in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati (I really wanted a fine arts degree, but Dad said no way)! Happily, after college I immediately found a job at a design firm in California’s Silicon Valley. Two years later I opened up my own studio where I freelanced for high-tech companies, advertising agencies and magazines doing both graphic design and illustration. I also had gotten married, and after the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta (the World Series) earthquake, I chose to move my family to the beautiful and presumably safer Pacific Northwest. I now live and work in Portland, Oregon.
As an illustrator, I had worked in acrylics, colored pencils and scratchboard. After taking a class in watercolor painting in 1997, I was hooked on the challenge of this difficult medium due to its potential for beautiful spontaneous effects. Before long I had shifted to using watercolor as my primary medium for expressing my perceptions of the world through fine art.
My drive to experiment with various approaches, methods and techniques in order to push the limits of my own ability is as important to me now as it was at the beginning. I’m always on a quest to differentiate myself from other artists through my style and point-of-view. It’s not the easiest route to success, but for me it’s the most satisfying and true to my personality. I’m very much looking forward to 2020 and continuing to following my muse down the path to new personal artistic breakthroughs.