A Bio of sorts......

I have drawn for as long as I can remember, and since 1998 I've shared that interest with students at Ohio Northern University in the flatlands of Ada, OH where I live with my wife, an accomplished artist who also teaches at Northern, our two amazing daughters, and a small herd of cats. Before ONU I taught at Thiel College in Greenville, PA for nine years after shuffling between several schools in Western New York as a part-time teacher.

I first came to oil painting as a kid with a local artist, Rose DiCarlo, who taught out of her home and who had us out on the street drawing and painting whenever she could. Later, I was extremely fortunate to be taken under wing by two gentlemen, Don Grieger and John Hodgins, who loved to paint outdoors, this was a remarkable education in working outdoors and on the spot in all sorts of weather and situations.

My "official" training came afterwards and consists of an undergraduate degree where I was fortunate enough to study painting and drawing with Robert Marx and ceramics with Bill Stewart. My graduate degree is in drawing and painting where I was able to study with the wonderful Harvey Breverman. I have also had the opportunity to participate in workshops with Charles Movalli, Andy Evansen, Eric Michaels, Bill Vrscak, Christopher Leeper, Tony Couch and Vladislav Yeliseyev among others.

Through the years I've come to love sketching with pen and watercolor more and more and realized that sketching just to sketch is what I like to do most of all. It doesn't have to be a preparation for something grander, it doesn't have to be a competitive sport, and it's okay to sketch just to enjoy sketching.