Things to talk about at a cocktail party...

 

 

 

Reading an artist's bio is like glancing upon your dinner host's bookshelves. You hope to glean something insightful or at the very least to spot a tid-bit of the scandal hidden within the exhibit.  Seriously... Fifty Shades of Grey stuffed behind Vonnegut and Omar Pamuk... So here are the publicly exhibited highlights.

 

Born in Augsburg, Germany and I moved to England at a tender age. There, I attended British private school in an old manor house proudly wearing my uniform until my parents moved back to Germany.  Thus, obtaining a rounded out and solid primary education. The cliff notes of the next few years include: Became interested in magic on a train ride to Berlin. Attended Emerson College in Boston, partaking in the Netherlands Kasteel Well program while  living in a 14th century double moat-ed castle with an exotic chicken collection and then living in L.A. above Universal Studios. Eventually I received a BFA in theatre design and technology. That's where it all diverges from the norm - I decided to paint.

 

Most sane people at this point would spend a summer smudging around the colorful stuff and move on into banking. However, I chose the more old-school apprenticeship route - complete with having to receive care packages from friends (including my future wife) while you are starving in France and learning trompe l'oeil painting from Yannick Guegan.  The next stop was with Sergio Ladron de Guevara in Cave Creek, AZ.  Here I learned more about art and painting by never talking about it. His Pandora Series are outstanding! A few more stops on the learning to draw route sent me back to France to Studio Escalier and then to Water Street Atelier in New York City. Throw into the mix doing the decorative painting for celebrities' houses, a few random projects here and there, and you just about have it to date.  I've had the privilege in the past year  to be at the Manhattan Graphic Center to expand my etching experience with Vjay Kumar. And lately... just trying to avoid accidently joining another cult, although that is a good story.

 

I am sure that all of this somehow adds to the colorful fabric of experience , thoughts and ideas as I paint. But not being a psychoanalyst or art critic, I feel it's just best to keep doing what I have been doing for the last 14 years - being a professional artist and painting every day.

 

To round out the full picture, I spend my "free time" with a blind Shiba who has his own Seeing Eye dog.