I was raised near Akron, Ohio and earned my Bachelor of Science in English from Kent State University in 1995. Though I have no formal art training, I have actively created a wide range of artwork all of my life.

I relocated from Ohio to Montana to work seasonally as a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park where I was employed at the entrance station before eventually being promoted to the Mammoth Visitor Center where I served as a park ranger and naturalist. It was during winters off from Yellowstone when I seriously began creating art, focusing my efforts in the medium of collage. After enjoying six seasons in Yellowstone, I re-located briefly to Bozeman before settling in Missoula in 2002. I presented my first solo art exhibition in Akron in 1997. I have since contributed to the Home Resource (of Missoula) art auction in 2005, and exhibited my work at the former Art Missoula, Portico Real Estate, the now defunct pizza shop The Fireplace, Gold Dust Gallery and Zoë and Miss Zula’s, all in Missoula, Montana.

The Blog

The blog allows me to explore what art is, to share my successes with others, and to interview other artists so that their successes can inspire success in my readers’ lives. It’s a place to explore how to be an artist and to share other artist’s experiences in their artistic journey.

The Art

I work in many different mediums when I create art. Working in this way helps to keep my work fresh as I challenge myself to explore new ways to manipulate images, paint, and other found objects.

Collage

Media agencies and corporate media have expended large amounts of money and time creating an art form which takes things out of context to manipulate viewers. We, the viewers, are bombarded with imagery and words until we become numb to their contexts and meanings. I take what this media gives us and build new contexts from it. Disjointed juxtaposed images with contrasting meanings work together forming new concepts, fresh ideas and layers of meaning. Recycling and renewing old ideas, thoughts and feelings from the discarded often brings unexpected, and always fun, results.

Painting

Movement and improvisation yield evocative paintings full of bold color. The randomness of the strokes actually becomes a form of organized chaos, which reveals a playfulness in the abstraction of my paintings. I enjoy the freedom of watercolor and acrylic, which find me dealing more with abstract shapes and ideas than recognizable form. These works are pure emotional expression. Much like the process of free-writing, my paintings express a feeling of a particular moment in time.

Photography

When behind the lens, I usually capture scenes without people in them – urban settings, textures of paint peeling, the colors of a thermal spring in a national park, a landscape on a hike. Recently, however, I have been thinking about the ways that constantly being filmed dehumanizes us. I therefore began consciously photographing people in a way that restores humanity to them, to myself, and to the viewers.

Writing

Aside from making art, I also like to dabble in writing. I’ve written one short story of which I am proud, as well as a novella which is great except for the ending. In order to keep my mind active, and to force myself to write, I’ve attempted to write a short story weekly for a while. I’m not always successful, and sometimes the stories aren’t either, but I enjoy doing it. Many of the stories are quite good, though. Read them and judge for yourself.