I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. I was born in Ely, Cambs, England - my father was a lifer in the U.S. Air Force and my mother is English - I was born in the same hospital she was in fact, the old RAF hospital in Ely that unfortunately no longer exists. Growing up as a military brat gave me a lot of opportunities to see a lot of different places and meet a lot of people but it also leaves you with a sort of "where's home?" feeling... by the time I was twenty I hadn't known anyone in my life for more than four years.
I think I was in third or fourth grade when I first began to draw. My father was stationed at Lowry AFB in Denver, Colorado and I was going to Whiteman Elementary. I wasn't really too interested in drawing jet fighters or airplanes, I always liked drawing people, like cowboys and Indians, presidents - people that I read about in history books, like Davey Crockett, Nathan Hale, or Zorro. As I got older I got into Big Daddy Roth and all his awesome characters and so I was drawing a lot of cartoon creatures, and science fiction and fantasy stuff. Looking back, I'm sure they weren't very good but I was doing my best, and I was gradually getting better at it.
When I was a freshman in high school, my father was sent to Viet Nam. We had to live off base while he was gone and things in general weren't much fun, I don't think I did any drawing at all for the year that he was over there. But he made it back ok and then we were sent back to England. All that time spent not drawing was suddenly unleashed... here I was in England, in the late 60's, where everything was happening. It was a great time to be alive, and I was drawing and painting every chance I got - not portraits though, op art and Yellow Submarine kind of art - fun stuff to the max!!
At that point I still hadn't had any formal training, no art classes, not a single lesson, so I started thinking about going to art school over in England. My father wasn't too thrilled about that though... he didn't mind that I wanted to be an artist, he just didn't want me doing it in England. I found out years later that he just thought it was too expensive.
So now here I am in 2001, still no formal training, no art classes, not a single lesson but it's probably just as well. I've always drawn what I felt like drawing without worrying too much about the technicalities. In my other life, I have a couple of degrees, one in electronics and one in electro-mechanical automation and I'm an equipment maintenance technician in the semiconductor industry. My wife Jan and I have been married for nearly nine years now and we live in Tempe, Arizona. I've finally been able to stay in one place - I've been here in Arizona since October, 1973. There's this constant battle in me between the technical side of me and the artistic side of me... like I love to draw but I also want to do some digital stuff. I'm not sure the world is ready for that yet though - artists are pretty warped as it is and there's no telling what would come out if I was to get unleashed in the digital galaxy so I guess the world is safe - for now anyway.
I hope my web site reflects the artistic and technical sides of me - any comments are welcome. Thanks for dropping by to see me, I hope you'll come back again soon. Take care and best wishes.
