I believe I was born to be an artist. There has never been a time when I haven't been creating art. In fact, when I was in the first grade, I prayed that I would grow up to be an artist; that desire has never changed.
I remember a few years later when a teacher asked me to fill out a career interest form. The form was divided into five different entries, arranged in hierarchy from your top choice to your last choice. I stated I wanted to become:
- an artist
- a better artist
- an even better artist
- a really good artist
- a great artist
All throughout grade school I received great encouragement from my teachers as they would often parade me and my art around to every classroom in my school showing off my latest achievement.
My father has also played an important roll in my artistic development. He worked as a printer for American Motors and would often bring home colored pencils, drafting tools and supplies to keep me busy creating art. He would also make hundreds of copies of my work for me to sell around the neighborhood as a way to purchase other art supplies.
My family also liked visiting museums. After my first visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts, I knew I wanted to become a painter (I was 9 years old).
My second year at Henry Fold Community Collage marked the next important phase in my artistic development. I attended a 101 art history class, taught by Wendy Evans, that made me realize that I needed to learn more about the lives of different artists and the history of art. She opened a whole new world of inspiration for me that has influenced my work.
My HFCC experience was topped off when I met my future wife in February 1991,
and earned a European scholarship later on that same year. With my future wife, I started visiting museums and attending special exhibitions on a regular basis, and made two more trips to Europe that lasted a month each. My wife's opinion today is that she has seen every
painting that has even been made!
After graduating from Wayne State University, in 1994, I decided to devote more time to painting. Even though I have been creating artwork all of my life, it wasn't until recently that I decided to exhibit my work in galleries. I wanted to be sure that I had refined a particular style of painting that would capture the lighting effects and mood of an approaching storm. I have always enjoyed the stormy quality of 17th century Dutch landscape paintings, and decided that I wanted to create paintings that focused on the cloud forms themselves. Narrowing down my subject to somber colors, contrast and form, has given me my artistic inspiration for a series of paintings that will keep me busy for years to come.
