How long have you been creating?

Since I am a fairly old fart, I have been creating for a very long time. I've had a studio dating back to the basement of my parents home in Lima, Ohio... but I started creating from approximately the age of 6, so that would be almost 53 years and it took me a long way from Lima.

What is your media of choice?

Media of choice for the past 4 years has been acrylic; it just fits the spontaneity of my style. I have shown in galleries in the past with pen and ink, colored pencils and ink, oils, mixed media and have done commercial illustration in many, many more medias.

What are my motivations for creating?

I have eyes, I see stuff... I cannot not create. I've always had that need to record, put it on paper, canvas, whatever. I become a very grumpy old man when I'm away from it for very long.

What other artists or movements inform your work?

My hero's of art have always been commercial illustrators... i.e. DaVinci, Michelangelo, Peter Paul Rubens, Norman Rockwell, Coby Whitmore, Bob Peak, Bernie Fuchs, Mark English, Jack Unruh, Guy Billout, Brad Holland, Marshall Arisman, Skip Lepkey, Gregory Manchess, Gary Kelley... artists who have had to meet a deadline, met it artistically, and were lucky enough to make a living doing it. I'm still working on that one.

What do you find visually stimulating right now?

I live, by pleasant accident, in probably the most stimulating places in the world. Beautiful vistas surround Telluride with a small scattering of crazies living within it. I am proud to include myself among them. Halloween like costumes are an everyday occurrence here, as well as, a passionate dedication for thinking completely differently... ala Monty Python - and now for something completely different... there's Telluride.

What's the last book you read?

"Tourist Season" by Carl Haisson and "The Return Journey" by Maeve Binchy because I like to laugh til I then cry.

Relationships are a recurrent theme in my work, tell us a little more about this dynamic?

I've always been interested in the interaction of human relationship with other humans and with the kinder gentle animals of the planet. I try to achieve the oneness of the observer with my work, I want them to feel my joys, laugh my laughter, sorrow my sorrows and feel my hurts, I want those feelings to arise within them. I also am a firm believer that a moment, thought or spontaneity of moment can be achieved with one brush stroke – I am slowly working my way to that one stroke... I have a long way to go, maybe smaller canvases is the answer. The dynamic of my painting is I pour out the paint and I just let the brush in hand do the rest... a painting takes three people to paint it, one to paint it and two to tackle and wrestle you to the ground to make you stop. I haven't found the other two so I still use more than one stroke.

What would you like your fellow EBSQ artists and our collectors to know about you and/or your work?

My work speaks for itself... me, that's another story. I'm just trying to get through and possible leave some legacy behind – my legacy may be the largest acrylic painting bonfire in history, but it will be something! My sincere hope is that these works will grace the wall of some person who will enjoy them and appreciate the effort that went into creating them.