BIOGRAPHY

When I was three years old, my uncle used to sit with me out in the backyard at my grandmother’s house and have me scribble on a piece of paper. He would then turn the scribbles into fanciful creatures and creations. I think I decided at that point that being an artist was a worthy aim in life. My mother, a painter, has always been a model for me as well.

In high school I discovered photography, and that was the beginning of the love affair. In college I studied with Robert Heinecken, and continued to passionately pursue the process of being in the darkroom, watching images appear and figuring out the science and art of printing. Somewhere in the mid 80’s life took some different directions, and while I kept on taking pictures, I wasn’t able to return to it fully until the mid 90’s. In 1998, I took a class from photographer Ed Heckerman called “photo-poetics”. I credit Ed with teaching me about “collecting” things, ideas, themes, etc. and understanding on a much deeper level how images go together in sequences and series.

Somewhere around 2004, I said to myself that I would never get a digital camera. Somewhere around 2005, I got one. While I still plan on working in the darkroom from time to time, digital technology has allowed me to explore my interest in combining images and words in a very fluid way.

What draws me as an artist is noticing the little details in life that sometimes get overlooked. I find myself enticed by the thoughts that we awaken to in the middle of the night or notice flying through our brains when least expected. I’m moved by the human courage and challenge and absurdities that surround me and the frequent humor that comes from not taking myself too seriously despite my propensity to live the “examined life”.