I was born on Oklahoma City, in 1958, and raised in the same house my entire formative school years. I attended Putnam City Schools, graduating in 1976.
Since those days, I have spent my entire life immersed in the world of art, in one way or another. Most of this has been as an art educator. I became an art educator primarily because of a couple of influential mentors/teachers who created my love of the arts while I was a young man, searching for an identity. They were such an important part of my life that I wanted to try and give those same kinds of gifts to another generation of young people. Hopefully, I am succeeding. My teaching career has taken me from Oklahoma to Colorado, Kansas, Northwest Oklahoma, and finally back to the school district where it all began in Oklahoma City where I am blessed to teach at an Alternative High School.
In addition to Art Education, I have always strived to, at the same time, be a “Working Artist.” I have shown my artwork in a variety of public places for almost 40 years. These include one man shows and group invitational shows at the Baker Arts Center in Kansas, The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, and the Platform Invitational Show in Oklahoma City. Over the years I have also participated in a variety of Art Festivals, and was recently selected to be the official Festival Artist for this years’ “39th Annual Paseo Arts Festival.” (They have used one of my paintings for t-shirts and posters.) In 2014 I was selected by the National Park Service to serve as the Artist in Residence for Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. I am fortunate to have my work in several private collections, and my paintings are currently for sale at the Kasum Contemporary Art Gallery in Oklahoma City.