In Case you were wondering
I have this funny little memory, one of my earliest. Maybe it's how it all a started. I remember kneeling on a chair at the kitchen table, at Mom's elbow. She drew a little series of long flat boxes spaced out end to end. Then she drew some little circles underneath the end of each box. She drew a bigger rectangle at one end of the string, added a triangle balanced on its point on top at one end and another smaller box on top at the other end. Linked 'em together with a line between the bottom corners, and at the other end, another special one with a smaller box on top in the middle. "What is it?" she asked. "A Train!" I said. "Draw it again, pleeeaaassssseeee!!!" Once more, she picked up the pencil, and this time she added a little puff of smoke above the smokestack. I begged for more, but she said, "you know, you could draw it yourself...."
I have been an artist since then. At one of those parent/teacher conferences, my second grade teacher apologized to my folks. "All I can get him to do is draw." I must not have been paying attention. I was probably preoccupied.
All my life I've gotten these urges to draw what pops up on my mental monitor. The intent to make something wakes up my internal search engine; that first image usually makes it to the output device. A quick sketch may be all that happens for the moment, but some I've actually gotten around to bringing to reality. Some of my best work was a re-creation of one of these images that I could see so clearly.
Strangely, only lately I've consciously considered theory and process as necessary parts of my work. A rational statement of my intent is a necessary preliminary to actually putting it all together in one, or a series of pieces, slapping a whole new layer of meaning onto my work.
I'm a Washington State native, but attending high school in Concord, Calif., then taking fine arts training at CSU Chico, Indiana University, South Bend and University of Nevada, Reno.
I've worked as a staff, and a freelance, magazine editor, writer, illustrator, designer, artist, commercial photographer. I have also worked as a search and rescue air crewman, electronics tech., carpenter, sign painter/exhibit builder, photojournalist, and lots of other stuff, some that made a living and others that didn't. Lots of gig work before the term hit the internet. The common denominator comes down to making an image worth a thousand words. Sometimes its just quicker to draw it than trying to describe it.
I have worked frequently in watercolor since high school, but I've tested most media, with some success in oils, acrylics, silkscreen and lithography. I have some fun with assemblage and collage too. I was also a registered photojournalist, with some studio photography experience.
I earned my first art show award as a high school sophomore in the Concord (Calif.) Art Association's 1967 Annual show. I graduated from high school with the departmental arts award, earning a regional placement in the national Hallmark high school competition. I have work in collections at the US Air Force Command HQ, Anchorage, Alaska; Indiana University, South Bend; US Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington DC. My first solo show was in Elizabeth City, N.C., in 1988 with the Pasquotank Arts Council.
I'm happily married, to Brenda Baker, of Sacramento, CA. We live in Hoquiam, Washington, since January, 2018.
I have one kid, Jason, living in North Carolina, who inherited the talent for drawing as well.