From an early age I’ve been fascinated with creating. Everything from drawing, painting, lego blocks or plastic models. Most of my drawings were primarily from my imagination so, by the beginning of high school, with encouragement from my art teacher and mother, I decided to work towards becoming a professional illustrator. My first serious job was working in the art department of the local newspaper doing paste up, graphic arts and cartoons. Looking for a drastic change in culture and lifestyle to influence my drawing in dramatic ways, I moved to Japan in 1991. The culture and language of the far east was always of interest to me, and there I found myself illustrating for a very different market to the newspaper. I worked for magazines, and monthly educational publications. In 1995 I entered a large illustration into a competition at the Tokyo Museum in Ueno Park. The show was called Tokyo-Ten, and my painting was awarded best new illustrator for that year. The painting was called “The Valley of Rhyme” which later on was made into a children's book in 2005. 1999 brought another big change with a move to United States. I continued painting in the new style and taught art classes in creative expression at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia. My works were also shown at the Dunlap Gallery for the first time as part of a group show and as a one-man show in 2001.
Each stage of my professional career has served my art practice. I still lean heavily however on digital media to publicize and document my illustrations on paper. |