Artist Bio

When I think back on how my interest in art started, I was pretty young. I loved coloring books and I remember my parents and relatives remarking on how I shaded in them instead of just filling in the colors.

In grade school I was picked to do a picture for the bulletin board in the main of hallway of the school. It was to have a standing figure of a man in it and my dad helped me by teaching me proportions and their relationship to the figure, ala DaVinci.

When I entered high school, I already knew I wanted to take art as my elective and did so for 4 years.  I had a great re-pour with my high school teacher and was encouraged by her to pursue my art as a career.

When I went off to Mount Union College to get a degree in education. I planned to teach art in high school, hopefully coach a sport, get married, and live happily ever after. But that didn’t last long. After two and one half years I already had my credits for teaching and my parents sat me down and asked me how serious I was about my art.

To be truthful, I was getting pretty intent about being an artist and not a high school teacher. So, I transferred to the Cleveland Institute of Art in Febraury, 1968, the middle of their school year. Except for my academic credits, I had to start my art training all over again.  I had worked for a summer in a graphic art studio in Cleveland so at the beginning of my time at CIA, I focused on being a graphic artist.  At the end of my first semester there I realized that I wanted to be a painter full time. Since the Cleveland Institute of Art was a 5 year program, I had 4 more years to go.

I graduated in 1972, three years later than I would have if I had finished my schooling at Mount Union. For most of those 4 years I worked full time on the railroad as a fireman/engineer to put myself through art school.  I did everything I could to make sure school and work didn’t interfere with each other. I was promoted to engineer on the railroad in 1972 also. At that time I started living in a factory building with some artist friends and not in a hurry to do much more than work and paint.

In 1974 I decided I wanted to go to graduate school for painting at Cornell University and study under Freidel Dzubus.  The plan was to get a teaching fellowship so I could stop working on the railroad and pursue my painting full time.  I went to see Freidel in May of 1974 and at that meeting I was told that there wasn’t any fellowship money for my first year at Cornel.  So, putting everything into perspective, I decided to go to Europe, buy a Norton Interstate motorcycle, and spent 3 months going wherever I wanted all over Europe.

I started out in London, paying a midnight visit to Stonehenge while I was breaking in the motorcycle.  Then I t ook a hovercraft to Hook of Holland and went to visit some relatives in Enschede, The Netherlands.  From there I headed south through France to Marseilles, along the coast from Toulon to Monaco, then to Italy.  Pisa and Venice were major highlights there. This was followed by Switzerland, Austria, Germany for the Octoberfest, and back to Holland, then to London and home.  The history of the countries I visited was illuminating, making me realize just how young our own country was.  The art was magnificent everywhere I went.  The experience was unreal.  My only regret at the time was not going to Giverny at that time to see Monet’s studio and gardens.