About

About Me and My Work

I was born in the tiny northern California town of Garberville in 1962.  My earliest memories are of the redwood forest surrounding our home, the Eel river that was just down the road, and our trips to the coast.  We lived in Napa for a time and I have fond memories of my aunt’s ranch and the rolling hills, emerald green in the spring and straw golden in the summer.  When someone asks me where I grew up though I tell them Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. It is there where I spent my formative years through high school.  

My mother and grandmother were both art hobbyists both painting in oil. Mom was also a great illustrator having created a wonderful storybook for my brother called Skip Goes to the Farm.  Where my mother's painting style was more abstract, my grandmother’s were mostly landscapes.  Her most stunning piece was a large painting of the iconic cypress tree in Monterey California.  That piece hangs in my aunts house to this day.

I clearly was blessed with wonderful artist genes but my middle school art teacher “Buzz” gets credit for spurring and encouraging my creativity.  He taught us all the fundamentals and had us working on many “think outside of the box” projects.  He also managed to keep me out of trouble through tons of athletic activities.  He’s a good man who I keep in touch with to this day.

Via college and marriage I find myself in Arizona.  Anyone who thinks the desert is a colorless lifeless place needs to spend some time here.  There is something special about the light in the desert and in the summer the mountain clouds stand guard for the cool and green high country.  I am blessed with a wonderful wife who supports and encourages my art career.  We so very proud of our two sons who are now young adults and we have been lucky to have many many of their friends call us mom and dad.

I have been a landscape artist my entire career.  I guess it’s only natural because I have lived in some incredibly beautiful places.  Over the years my work have shifted from the representative to the abstract and like a wave my style ebbs and flows between the two.  My creative process starts with a basic idea of color and composition but in never ends up where I thought it might.  There is always a tension between me and the piece as I move it along.  I seem to always be fighting with the painting.  In my best work there is usually a moment of panic where I’m sure I've screwed it all up or where I have literally made a grand mistake.  It is in that moment where something special happens...where my instinct bubbles up.  Making a piece is like growing up.  I have to get through the struggles and make the mistakes before I can earn what the painting will reveal itself to be.