Biography

     Born in the city of Los Angeles, CA to a construction-worker father, and seamstress/stay-at-home mother I received the beginnings of a classical education, rich in art, culture, sports, and religion.  As a boy I spent much time perusing art books that my mother purchased from Time-Life Books, and trying to draw some of the images therein, from the Bible, history, or mythology.  The idea of a sound mind in a sound body is one that I learned around this time, and it dovetailed quite nicely with the visual imagery from these art books.  It was also around this time that I was learning to work with my hands from my parents, in building, in fixing things, and in my hobby constructing models.   

     After four very fulfilling years at Cathedral high school, I had the good fortune to attended undergraduate college at St. Mary’s College of California, where I played football and rugby, and then on to Art Center, College of Design two years later in 1982-83 where I studied illustration.  I worked for a few years doing graphic art and some illustration, but my real ambition was fine art painting, so I went into a different field, but one that seemed more familiar to a man raised in a construction family--carpentry.  It was an avocation that I wanted to work in since boyhood.  More than a decade in that field as a carpenter and then remodeling contractor was very satisfying professionally and otherwise, but the call to art proved strong.  It may have been a fateful visit to friend and former Art Center teacher Dan McCaw that lead to a return to art.  The construction jobs have gradually tapered down and the art jobs have increased, including teaching drawing classes.        

     Today, I am pursuing my Masters of Fine art degree at Azusa Pacific University.  You may find me at work on paintings of my wife and daughter, dancers, construction workers or genre scenes.  I really love teaching figure-drawing classes to eager artists who wish to improve their observation of the subtleties of drawing and the human form.  It is the figure that is of primary interest to me, the human being, in action, in contemplation, in life.

     I like the work of numerous artists, but I am continually drawn back to the work of artists like Rubens, Degas, and Sargent artists noted for their strong, representational figure-drawing skills.  It is that subject -- the figure -- that has captivated me since boyhood and it is primarily that subject which I like to draw and paint.  It is a search for the universal, the familiar, the classical and even the divine, that drives me to seek those things that we all relate to and recognize in art. 

Memberships

Oil Painters of America - Associate Member

National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society

California Art Club - Associate Artist Member

Chaffey Community Art Association

Associated Artists of the Inland Empire