Biography

I first developed an interest in art as a teenager during the 1960's. Those were the best and worst of times. Being a teenager is never easy but in the sixties every wire was hot and the current could be lethal. Around me I saw major political leaders assassinated and our cites being put to the torch in urban riots. My peers were dying in an endless jungle war that defied understanding while hundreds of thousands of citizens marched on Washington in protest. It was the most divisive period in the countryÌs history since the Civil War and yet, when I looked at the avant-garde art of the day, Pop paintings of Brillo boxes and thinly stained color field canvases, I felt confused and a bit betrayed. Where was the outrage, where was the howl, where was the beef?

To me, Grateful Dead album covers and rock concert posters spoke more clearly than monochrome canvases and minimal boxes. Robert Crumb's Zap Comix seemed far more relevant than blown up panels from romance comic books. I spent a lot of time in high school making rock posters and drawing comics and, as a result, my academic performance was marginal at best.

Fortunately, in the 1960's the government was running an extensive training and make-work project for people like myself for whom higher education was not a viable option. In 1969 I was drafted into the army. At first I was trained in infantry but, thinking this to be a high risk profession and being safety conscious, I maneuvered my way into welding school. Welding, while far safer than infantry, is extremely hot work, particularly in semi tropical climates. I used my self-taught art skills to transfer into a job as an illustrator.

I got out of the military in 1971 and drifted for a few years before settling in Arkansas. The two things artists need most, cheap space and personal freedom, Arkansas had in abundance. In 1975 I entered Little Rock University and enrolled in my first formal art classes.

It was in art school that I first encountered the phrase, "It's the process, not the product." In the 1970's, would-be artists were taught to repeat this like a mantra. Art was seen as an intellectual exercise and craftsmanship was frowned upon. Having grown up in a family of craftsmen I was never able to buy into this belief of the day. In art school I made slap-dash abstract pieces and got good grades but, in my heart, I was always a realist. I liked art for the product.

One thing about being in the high-paying field of art, I get to buy a lot of used cars. Every now and then a used car ad appears in the paper that is noteworthy for its simplicity. It usually reads something like this; "1983 Chevy, it runs." One can only imagine how such an eloquent ad comes to be written. Most likely, the proud owner of the car walked all around his vehicle with a pad and paper in hand and the intent of writing down every good point the automobile had. "It runs" was the best he could come up with. I have long had the feeling that the person who penned the phrase "It's the process not the product" did so after an equally honest appraisal of his own product.

After college I spent about ten years painting in oils, acrylic, and watercolor, screen printing, glass blowing, throwing pots and building and carving all manner of sculpture. In the mid 1980's I found myself in Manhattan working for a company that built models for architects. I was hooked. The rest of my story appears on these web pages.