Artist Statement

Everyone is going to have their own subjective opinion about what Art is – from what is good art to what is bad art. I’ve done a bit of both in my lifetime. As both viewers and creators of works, we can bring in a wealth of our own personal history, knowledge and life experiences when we expose ourselves to art. This influences our reactions as both artists and viewers where we search for objective observation.

Thus being said, it is my strong belief that art must originate with an experience and be an expression of feelings from within the individual creator. Insincerity or any attempt to create art that does not grow from within, is in my opinion, wasted. It is a menial task. Adequate form requires the artist to be an individual rather than a repetitive imitator who is restricted to style or performs to the expectations of others.

As a bluesman, you have to feel the blues. As an artist, I believe you need to feel a similar empathy and in some expressive manner, you pour out a part of your soul to share with the world when you make art, music or whatever it be. Sometimes you know ahead of time that others may not relate well with you. Some may despise you. But you do it anyway for the love of it. You persevere.

In my life, I am a black belt who has embraced Yoshukai Karate. Yoshukai (those three Japanese kanji characters) translates as ‘training hall of continuous improvement.’ When asked, Pablo Picasso said his greatest work of art was always the next thing he was about to do. I find that karate-do, music and the visual arts have many parallels where we strive to do a little better than the last moment.

Artistic Influences

I count my artistic influences to be varied from a cadre of artists that range from Renaissance painters, to Japanese printmakers, to those that have illustrated comic books, Saturday Evening Posts and then some. The artists that I specifically list has having the biggest influence on my own work include Lovis Corinth, Norman Rockwell, Hiroshi Yoshida, Rembrandt, E.C. Segar, Alberto Giacometti, Leonardo da Vinci, Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Edward Degas, Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, Joe Kobert and Goseki Kojima.

My Life as an Artist

My earliest memories of my life go all the way back with me drawing with crayons as I sat in a little orange chair that my grandfather had made for me. I was probably 2 or 3. All my life, I’ve loved drawing and art. My mama had artistic talent and would sit down with me around the time I was in first grade and would show me different drawing techniques with drawing portraits. She may have not thought she was talented, but my mama was.

I believe that the artistic ability that I seem to have been born with is a God-given talent that I’ve worked to improve upon. Throughout my childhood, I cultivated my artistic abilities in the classroom and on my own. My parents encouraged me along the way. I am forever thankful.

I unapologetically confess that the artwork in comic books have probably had the greatest impact on my life as to why I first picked up a pencil or a crayon and started to draw. I wanted to write and draw comic books at an early age and took all the art classes that I could as a child. The book that probably had the greatest influence on me as a young teenager was HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY by Stan Lee and John Buscema.  While the book provides an aspiring comic book artist the tools for what it takes to illustrate a comic, what it ended up doing more spectacularly was provide the basic foundation to the elements of art by showing a young boy how to work with perspective, proportions and drawing fundamentals.

In high school, I started to move beyond thinking just about being a comic book artist as I began exploring my personal feelings in my own artwork. I dabbled in painting for a while, but the act of drawing was what I loved most. I graduated with art honors in high school.

I attended Illinois State University where I was overwhelmed with all the fantastic art school students that also attended. I pushed away the feeling that I had to compete and just challenged myself. My freshman art instructor, Dick Folse, was instrumental for pushing me towards Printmaking and the late Professor Ray E. George. I entered a mentorship through the honors program and studied printmaking. About midway through college, I was accepted into the Bachelor of Fine Arts program where I continued to concentrate in intaglio, lithography and drawing. I also became a student-worker in the Normal Editions Workshop with Professor Richard Finch. These four years were absolutely fantastic as I honed my skills. During that I time, I found out who I wasn’t.

Once I graduated, it was then that I began to define who I was in my own work. Perhaps I wasn’t making grand political or social statements in my work, perhaps I wasn’t prolific or recognized, perhaps I wasn’t in the studio everyday… but those moments when I get to draw, I do try to pour a little bit of my soul into the work and push myself.

My work leans more towards figurative subject matter as the human experience, emotion and relationships are most important to me. Then again, a drawing of a koi fish, a study of a tree or the form and architecture of a building provides just as much joy to render.

For several years, I’ve also had the opportunity to teach art courses at Springfield College. Teaching has forced me to re-approach the fundamentals of art all over again and break it down, not only for myself, but to allow me to pass on the knowledge to others.

But life took an unexpected turn after I graduated from college where I concentrated my efforts in the fine arts. Practical application of art to make a living made me face the reality that I had to use my artistic skills in a commercial way. Though I didn’t study graphic design in college, I had to learn how to learn the technical skills, software and theories on my own.  I spent a few years working at Kinko’s where I taught myself to use Adobe Photoshop and other creative design software in the afterhours. For the past decade, I’ve been a graphic designer for all extensive purposes.

In this new century, I use new digital media, mixed with traditional drawing materials and methods, to not only design commercial work, but to also crossover in my “fine arts” work. Along the way, my childhood dream of becoming a comic book artist was also realized where it seems that both fine arts and commercial art… crossover. I don’t worry too much about being pigeon-holed by others. I use my artistic skills for those creative projects that I take on… whether personal or for and assignment.

As for the future, I will keep on making art.

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