About The Artist:

I grew up in the small Northern Michigan tourist town of Petoskey.  It was an excellent location to grow up affording me many wonderful experiences. My parents served as excellent rolemodels to me, always encouraging me to achieve the best that I could and to pursue quality in a product. 

Originally going into mechanical engineering at GMI Engineering and Business Management Institute (Previously General Motors Institute, currently Kettering University), I left that mathematically pock-marked road to pursue what I truly loved; art and English.  Reclaiming my academic standards at North Central Michigan College (NCMC) in Petoskey, I was artistically educated by such notable Petoskey area artists as Kathy Phelps, Doug Melvin, Carol Brossard, and Catherine Carey.  Upon graduating with my associates, I then went to Central Michigan University, studying under the artists John Swanstrom and Jerry Smoke.  I graduated with a double major in art and English in Secondary Education.

Graduating mid-year from Central, I was lucky to find employment teaching English with The North Branch Area Schools.  This is a small agricultural town in the thumb of Michigan, about twenty minutes from Lapeer.  The teachers of North Branch left a favorable first impression upon me.  I often found myself wandering through colleague, and artist Tim Harbaugh's art classoom during down times, and this helped me to realize how much I truly loved art. 

A half year shy of tenure, I left NBHS so that my wife, also a teacher, could accept a job in Pine River Area Schools teaching English.  During the next year, I worked hanging drywall, as well as a being a graphic artist for Kel Graphics in Cadillac.  During this time I began to find a love for cars when I designed shirts for area car shows, as well as vehicle graphics for race cars.

I left Kel Graphics so I could work for the Forest Area Schools located in Fife Lake, Michigan.  There, for the first time, I was able to teach art, during a maternity leave for their art teacher. I was awarded a teacher of the year award there for that year, as well as the year after that (while teaching at Pine River).  At this time I also began pursuing my Masters in Educational Administration through Central Michigan University.  Finding that Central's educational program had grown unable to provide for my educational needs, I finished up my Masters with Grand Valley State University graduating with honors.

At 31, I experienced a rough stretch of health suffering from a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), a Pulmonary Embolism, and three strokes.  Losing 85% of my short term memory, I quickly found daily tasks overwhelming.  Luckily, through speech therapy and my art, I relearned how to remember.  Reading which I once had enjoyed however, became a large obstacle for me to mount.  Troubles remembering what I had just read caused and do cause endless frustration, as with my longterm memory I remember it being so much easier.  Good did come of this event though.  I poured myself into my art, letting it redefine me as an individual.  I could create without having to think, and I still find myself at the end of artistic adventures not quite remembering exactly how I did it.  What you see created on these website pages were almost all created after my brain attacks.  I now also hold a Master's in Secondary Educational Administration from Grand Valley University.

It has been over eight years since being hired as Pine River Area School's art teacher.  I have truly found a job that I love, with accepting peers, and highly intelligent, eager students.  My collegues honored me by electing me to receive the prestigious Outstanding Person In Education (OPIE) award for my district. 

During my summers I enjoy spending time with my loving, supportive family, camping, fishing, and attending area car shows to listen to the owners of classic cars impart their oral histories to me.  I am a cofounder and past president of the Northern Michigan Art Guild (NMAG) a Cadillac Area 501c3 group dedicated to the promotion of the visual arts in the community.