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I was born in Detroit Michigan in the summer of 1956. I am an artist and teacher. I live in a small farming community in southeast Idaho. I work in several media but my fame comes from my talents with pastels and an ancient, almost lost art of freehand scissor cut silhouette art. While still in high school I had the honor of submitting the winning design for the Claremont California Unified School District logo. This brought me what Andy Warhol called everyone's, "Fifteen minutes of fame".  While in high school I started doing murals. In fact, got rather good at them. Two years after graduation I was at Disneyland with some friends. While there it dawned on me that almost every ride, show, food vendor and shop had murals painted on them. So a week later I returned to the casting office and applied as a backdrop painter. I walked out a silhouette artist. Follow the link to the left to find out more. In 1978, after Disneyland, I was employed as an illustrator, layout and paste up artist for a large ad agency. It was drab job, most of my time was spent pasting together what I called "Bird Cage Liners". (The throw away ads that litter your local paper). I stuck with this company for 2 years and then sidestepped into photocopier repair. That job was far from artistic but the money was better. After 8 years the stress started to take it's toll. The endless hours each day virtually "parked" on L.A. freeways were getting to me. I quit the real world and returned to Disneyland. There were no openings in the Silhouette Shop and the cart I worked in New Orleans Square was now vending candy, so I took what I could get... a Submarine Skipper, on the Submarine Voyage. I also worked the People Mover, Magic Journeys and Space Mountain. It was zero stress, working vacation. After two years I ventured back into the real world. Shortly there after a rare genetic illness, known as Wilson's disease, manifested itself. I came very close to death and I required constant care from 1988 until 1992. Follow the link to the left to find out more. In 1992, during my long road to recovery, I moved from Southern California
to the less hectic state of Idaho. I was briefly married to Vikki I her met while
recovering. Although the marriage did not last, I owe her a tremendous debt of
gratitude. She pulled me out of my cloud of self pity and remorse and dragged me
kicking and screaming into the real world. She is the one responsible for my
getting back into silhouette cutting. Although we are no longer wed, she is
still a good friend.
In 1996 my parents were finally ready to move to Idaho. They had been
trying since 1992. However a long real estate slump kept there house in Lytle
Creek, California on the market for four years. When the house was going through
escrow they came to Idaho to buy a home. They decided on a 2.8 acre parcel of
farm land with 2 houses, 4 car garage, barn and sheep shelter on the property.
Dad's health had been bad and he passed
suddenly a few days before escrow closed on
the California property and a couple more until the papers were signed on the new one.
Mom could not afford it on her own so I went
in on the deal with her. This
realized an impossible dream for me... After 20 years of renting I was a home owner.
I remained to myself for the next 4 years. I taught
art classes at various elementary schools as well as night classes. I also had my Silhouette
Portrait business during the summers. In my spare time I started to create this web site.
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