I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. It’s quite possible that I was born with a pencil in my hand because I don’t ever remember not having one around and at easy reach. One of my earliest and favorite birthday presents was an ‘Artist’s Workshop’. Various papers, pens, colored pencils, charcoal sticks and watercolors with brushes. All set in neatly molded plastic case that could fold out into a makeshift easel. It was beyond cool.

When I was a kid a spent my time trying to recreate pictures I found in magazines and in the newspaper. One of my favorite things to do was to draw movie posters. Endless variations on Star Wars and Rocky. I actually got high praise for a version of Meatballs staring Bill Murry as a school project.  Later I would recreate pictures of family members from photo albums who would then buy the pictures from me for 50 cents or even a dollar. This was my first commissioned work.

In high school I was entered in several contests and exhibitions around my hometown of Philadelphia. I once won second prize in a young artist’s competition and has my painting shown at a special booth in the lobby Philadelphia Art Museum. I wasn’t part of the museum’s exhibitions per se, but I can say that without fear of contradiction that my work has been shown in Philadelphia Museum of Art.

After high school I moved to San Francisco where I studied fine art and illustration at the Academy of Art. At first my style was realistic, my attempt was to touch reality, an artistic photograph.  but as I became enamored of the surrealist, cubist and especially the abstract impressionist movements I began to play with form and shape, using bold color and sharp lines, refining and honing my craft into the very distinct style you will see today.

I work in a variety of mediums but pastel, chalk, charcoal and acrylic paint are where I spend most of my time. There is a physicality, a grittiness to these materials that draws me back to them. I love to work fast and get my hands dirty. As much as I can philosophize and pontificate about the subject for me art is just fun. It’s a joy, a treat. When the brush dips in the paint or when the sharpened point scratches rough paper I’m just a kid drawing pictures. And for a moment there is nothing else, just the happiness of creation.