Biography and Artist Statement

I have had a life-long passion for art. I took whatever art courses I could find in high school and at Middlebury College in Vermont. I later studied Painting and Design at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. I have sold paintings in my own studio/galleries in California and New Mexico.

Past lives include military experience as a Naval Radar Intercept Officer flying F-4B Phantom jets in Vietnam and Flight Test Officer flying A-6 Intruders at Pt. Mugu, California. My longest career after the military was in commercial real estate as a broker and finally real estate acquisition supervisor for the US Government. There were occasional breaks from real estate to try surviving as a jeep tour and taxi cab driver, waiter, bartender, inn keeper, inventor, gallery owner, and as always an artist.

Another of my strong urges has been to see every corner of this beautiful land. In 1997, I climbed in a big rig and became an over-the-road truck driver. What better way to see the country and get paid for it than be a truck driver. I lived mostly in trucks between 1997 and 2005, waking up every day in a different place, crisscrossing the country what must be hundreds of times and loving it. There is a rhythm and pace to it that suited me. Around every turn there was a new view and of course, the daily sunrises and sunsets that were not to be missed. My only problem was that after a life filled with art, I was not doing anything creative.

I discovered digital photography in 2003. I treated myself to a good camera, bought a new laptop and went totally wireless. Agonizing hours and days were spent learning the equipment and software. Every weekday I sent an email with a photo to a growing list of family and friends I met along the way. These emails were all saved. Hopefully, my pictures reflect a joy for life in America … its scenery, its history, its people, and the things they create and leave along the way. I am now “retired” ... I need more time for photography.

I look for craftsmanship, however crude. I look for beauty and color in unusual places. My computer photo editing program allows me to add, remove, enhance and alter as I see fit. Sometimes a photograph needs almost nothing. Other times I will spend hours working on a piece. I sometimes use photography to occasionally make a statement of my own. I believe it is this manipulation process that makes each photograph unique and elevates it to the higher realm of art. I have no training in photography. If you enjoy what you see of my work, it is from years of being an artist and my own severest critic."