I started painting when I was a child. My first memory of my own personal work was when I was perhaps 6 or so as I drew a tree on the family piano, which did not sit well with the parents. I grew up on a farm in Missouri and the beauty of the area and the land has always stayed with me in my work. After leaving home, I attended the Kansas City Art Institute where I received a BFA in Design and a minor in Art History (specifically Italian Renaissance work) all the while painting like a madman just for the sheer joy of the act. After having numerous small shows and working as a freelance contractor (scenic painting, design, builder of such things as 12' tall carrots and ice cream cones) I returned for my masters at Prescott College in filmmaking. I continued my freelance work from there and expanded my base to include shooting and editing films and documentaries. I find painting a necessary counterbalance in my life, it brings me to a core of creativity that is very different from my other mediums and somehow that core fills me with abundance.