My Steps

  I had a "normal" childhood, growing up in Northern California. The dysfunctional events and family surrounding me didn't seem "abnormal". Adolescence was exciting and full of adventures, that nurtured my childhood fantasies. Any thing traumatic was absorbed in drawing or creativity, making things to escape into. This helped me survive the mental and spiritual difficulties. I could escape to my world of art as chaos seemed to spin around. Anything outside of myself appeared confrontational, chaotic, and I could go into my world like a subterranean creature. As a result, I became creative.

I became involved with the seductive forces of the late sixties and seventies. I really enjoyed all that freedom of discovery during the cultural revolutions. They seemed to have had their own gravity. I moved to Hollywood, then to SOHO, in New York City. I dived into the abyss of the Big Apple, studying Jazz, French and Art. There were those "I’ll never forget" moments: attending Robert Maplethorps studio parties, meeting Andy Warhol, seeing Bob Dylan walking down the street with groceries from the Union market. I used to live at this really cool SOHO address, next door to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They were exciting raw and viral times in New York, when random muggings were as popular as sex and diversification the skin of the great behemoth.

Lowell Nesbitt had a loft on top of this Woster street Building, where I lived. I would work in his studio, stretching canvas and priming them. I would watch him paint and, when he finished, I would frame them. He did a painting a day. I would study his technique and marvel at his lifestyle and his world he had created spinning around him. Further downtown lived the indomitable Deborah Remington. She was just building her fabulous studio. I worked for her also, finishing her studio, trompe l’oeil painting wood on tin window frames. I masked off edges of line on her canvases that she would paint. She taught me how to draw using the blind contour method. What a wealth of information she gave me. We now have become very close friends. She still has that same studio across from the new Soho Grand Hotel.

I attended the School of Visual Art in New York City. Later I went out to Denver and graduated from the Art Institute. I studied printing at the Kala Institute at Berkeley, California. Whenever I could I would exhibit in small galleries, museums and restaurants. I grew from that exposure and the relationships, spiritually and technically. I experienced pitfalls and pinnacles and I’m truly grateful for the ying yang which is now the fabric of my being.

Eventually I acquired an artist's studio in San Francisco and became obsessed in the quest to make art. During that venture of experimentation and development, I took my last day job at a film company. I was a scenic artist and stage manager of an EMMY award winning team. The film industry was very exciting and taught me a lot: special effects, miniature work, and point of view set design. Most exciting was learning that the world is my pallet.

Returning to my studio to work late into the night and on weekends, I was able to continue to develop my painting. Shooting film was months on and off work. So there were many times in between films that I was totally saturated in just my art. I would take trips to paint: around California, Key West, Hawaii, and New Orleans. I was led into painting all my canvases with a bright red background. I started this as a solution to achieve an atmospheric condition in the sky. Robert Wood taught me to paint the sky pink first, then put in the blues over the dry ground. The brush strokes would faintly leave the pink showing through the blue, almost undetectable, the pink shown through giving the blue an effect of atmosphere. I found out later by adding a bit of a color's compliment to itself that a single color can have depth. Well, after a while, I began to increase the temperature to a bright red. This raucous red excited me as I began to paint the cool landscapes. The blues and greens of normal landscapes became alive. The cool colors took on a whole new presence. The eye would begin to "FLASH" as the aperture of the iris would contract or dilate on the cool or hot color. This causes the viewer to respond in a more active way and the images seem to breathe and vibrate. However, I am now venturing into painting softer edges.

I would sometimes paint with a few friends. Win Ng and Riko Takata were the duo I painted with most. From San Francisco, we would drive to Win's ranch, a 1,300 acre spread on a mile of coast, just south of Mendicino. There we would set out for days at a time. Win would bring roasted duck from China Town and Riko would bring Japanese delicacies. The ranch was on the coastal shores of Abalone fields. Also the place had a lake on the edge of the cliffs over the ocean, stocked with huge Steelhead Trout. We would have wonderful Epicurean feasts that had been regally prepared. I'm surprised I don't weigh 400 pounds. The haunting quiet of the primeval coastal forest and hills disappearing into the clouds would be interrupted by the bleating of distant sheep.

We would paint all around the area and return to sumptuous delights. The stays would sometimes end with a tear running down my face. The stay was over for another couple of weeks. What an experience of God's love, one of many as I trudged life’s road.

The San Franciscan Studios that I had were fun. We would host parties and invite friends over. We always had great food and good times. At one party, we had a whole roasted pig, two capons, two meat pies, 30 pounds of shrimp, 4 gallons of clam chowder, all the other condiments, breads, cheeses, fruits, deserts.

My eyes would look at other dishes as color and I had to get that tube, had to have that dish...... we ate quite awhile after that night but the table looked great. I had images of Henry VIII.

I was a member of The San Francisco Artist Guild. During that time I met a few of the most important people in my life, besides my wife, the Cosgroves of Menlo Park and the Brozmans of New York City. Friends are a gift and Shep Brozman did say, "I'm a messenger from God". Shep became my messenger and dealer. He took my art from street venious to major galories. He put together shows and placed paintings in some of the most famous addresses in the world. We still work together. 

Now I live and work in Colorado, teaching art at Foothills Art Center and other local cultural centers. Also, I am studying at the Arts Student League of Denver.

I'm happily married to the most wonderful person in the whole world, Joy. Joy is the joy of my life. We have been married for about 15 years. She is also an artist as well and she works with the mentally handicapped. I am never sufficiently grateful for her in my life. I met Joy in Hawaii. Each day, I see love grow and it gets better and better. It continues to delight me. 

I hope my work conveys the love that found me.