About Me
Back in the days before digitally generated art/design, I arrived on the scene in the Black Mountain Hills of Western South Dakota (preceding the arrival of Rocky Raccoon by approximately 15 years). I soon learned to appreciate additional tunes by the Fab Four and throughout my youth practiced a delicate balance of music, baseball, camping, reading, magic and art to keep me out of trouble.
Following high school I continued my education at South Dakota State (1972–74), University of Northern Colorado (BFA, Drawing & Painting, 1977) Bank Street College of Education/Parsons School of Design, (MA, Arts Education, 1985) and Rochester Institute of Technology (MFA, Graphic Design, 1989) with a brief interlude at La Poggerina, Figurine Valdarno, Italy for instruction in old master’s painting techniques, marble sculpture and mountain climbing.
After graduation from UNC (and realizing I was not going to become a professional baseball player) I spent some time molding young minds at the Abbey High School (1979–’81) in Cañon City, Colorado Subsequently, I also became mesmerized by the lost wax casting process and joined Art Castings of Colorado bronze foundry in Loveland as a wax chaser and spruer. I then returned to teaching at Graland Country Day School (1982–’87) in Denver while completing my MA degree at Bank Street and Parsons during the summers.
Returning to graduate school a second time for my MFA, I experienced the digital revolution in graphic design at RIT in upstate New York. Following graduation, I worked at Rosanne Werner Design Associates as an Art Director and Idea Connections as a sculptor and creative storyteller, both in Rochester, NY.
Heeding the call of Horace Greeley, I returned to the wild west of Wyoming, and joined a very dynamic art faculty at Northwest College in 1990. Since 2000, I have taught graphic design at the University of the Pacific, and chaired, or co-chaired the Department of Art and Graphic Design from 2007–2020.
Noteworthy studio projects have included:
- “DeltaFusion”— I co-founded this summer pageant exploring the expressive power of Giant Puppets telling the cultural stories of Stockton.
- “Looking Through a Glass Onion”—Pedaling my bicycle across the country (BBBA), meeting lots of interesting folks and filling my head with artistic possibilities generated several gallery exhibitions of digital prints.
- “Jules”—a steam-punk piano design created as a part of downtown Stockton’s “Music to Our Ears” project.
- “Mick Fleetwood”—a car hood design created as a part of “Shifting Gears: the Making of an Art Car”.
- “Mojo Boogie”—a design series based on the musical stylings of New Orleans using piano keys and mixed media.
- “Hay, What have you Done For Me Lately?”—a multi-media installation, documentary video, poetry, and digital prints on silk exploring the role that the cultivation of hay has played in the development of world culture.
- “Merica”—A digital print series on canvas focusing on isolated areas of wood, metal or glass that have been subjected to extreme weather conditions, abandonment and/or disuse.
- “Mannikins”—A digital print series on paper altering store mannikins by the addition of lighting and textural techniques.
My precocious daughter, Natalie attends SUNY Fredonia in New York and my red-hot smokin’ wife starts kids out on the right track at Oakwood School. She and I reside in Stockton, CA with Jagger the Wonder Dog, and Tilly and Truk the Cats Incredible.
My current studio artwork alternates between two main directions; repurposed musical instruments as sculpture and extreme close-up images of motion, lighting or texture in the creation of new digital forms. The later is at the core of the ongoing print series, “Invented Forms and Imaginary Objects.” An additional component of this series is the use of a variety of materials as printing surfaces or substrates. That variety includes canvas, paper, sintra and aluminum.
Neil Young seems to always have had a certain way of expressing things that I tend to agree with. Here is one of his recent thought-provoking comments from Waging Heavy Peace.
“I think I will have to use my time wisely
and keep my thoughts straight
if I am to succeed and deliver the cargo
I so carefully have carried thus far to the outer reaches.”
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