ARTIST INFO

Artist info, I was born in Denver and my family has lived in this area since the 1880's. I started drawing as a child when we lived in Trinidad Colorado in an old house that is said to be haunted. I remember watching my mom drawing things in pencil and ink. She was pretty good at it and it encouraged me to draw too. Since then I've always liked drawing and making things. We moved back to Denver in when I was 6. As I grew up here I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of antiques. My family bought, sold and collected antiques, glass, furniture, old guns, swords, arrowheads and a lot of other things. My parents weren't rich, they bought and sold antique items and did some restorations. All these things influenced my life and my art. I've liked antique and ancient art from an early age. My mom worked at Kohlberg's antiques in the 1960's and 70's. It was a high quality antique store that was known world wide. Whenever I visited there, I was exposed to all sorts of interesting things like armor, old weapons, antique guns, Native American artifacts and ancient curiosities from all over the world. It was like a museum! All this drew me more into past history and art through the ages. Around the age of 14, I started collecting odd antiques and old military souvenirs and did so for many years. I still use old things all the time including a 1937 Dodge. I worked as a sheet metal fabricator for years and learned a lot that would later be applied to my metal art and other things I made. I didn't get serious about art until the 1980's after I leaving factory work due to a work injury. It was around that time when I started doing a lot of watercolors and began experimenting with Brass Repoussé. I eventually got my artwork into several local art galleries. I was creating and learning and it felt good! I knew had found my purpose in life and I did a lot of it almost every day until 1996 when I got sick. Actually I felt fine until they gave me the cure and it almost killed me. It took years to get over it and it changed my life. I had a cloud over me all the time. I felt like I was half here and half gone. Material things meant nothing to me, I even abandoned my artwork that I had in galleries. I didn't need it or want it anymore. My dear family and friends kept me going but I had lost all my will to create or do art. All I could think about was trying to stay alive! I did no artwork at all except for a few pencil drawings now and then. I just didn't feel inspired and I couldn't get motivated. I was depressed and that was very bad for my recovery. Doing art was like therapy and I desperately needed it but I just could couldn't get started. I thought I would never do artwork again. Then in 2003 I discovered the music of Björk from Iceland. Wow! Its hard to describe the way her music effected me but It was so different, original and inspiring. It made me want to start making things again and it wasn't long before I was drawing, wetting brushes and hammering on metal for the first time in 6 years. Now I'm doing art again and feeling much better. My work has always been influenced by the past but now I have new influenced new inspiration I view things differently. I've grown from all this and I have new kind of passion! I am starting out all over again and I am looking for a way to make money with my art or photography. I may be a starving artist but I'm alive! I never mentioned any of this negative stuff before but it is a part of me now and it effects my thoughts and expressions. Life is strange! Anyway, I hope you'll like my work!