I didn’t have long to wait for my audience. I started painting at ten, and by the time I was in my early teens, I was doing portrait commissions. Technical skill has always been very important to me and is something I’ll always strive to master.

But even more important is that special something. That soul, that essence, that spark of a subject that can’t be captured by studious execution alone. It has to be seen, felt, and held in the heart as the most noble attribute. Only in putting that quality of life first can an artist hope to be able to channel its energy onto the canvas. And without it, any work, no matter how grand or epic or skillfully done, is dead.

I’m a native of Healdton, Oklahoma, and I graduated Southeastern Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art. I went on to attend graduate school at West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas for one year. But my quest for that ‘life beyond the image’ would not find fruition until 1993 when I began studying with Classical Realist, Kirk Richards, in Amarillo, Texas. For the next six years, I faced the daunting task of unlearning much of what I’d been taught by the system. It was through this rigorous training that I began to find my focus and direction and, not surprisingly, my art began to blossom.

Over the years, my work has been seen in galleries and in a wide array of shows and exhibits. While living in Amarillo, I apocalyptic still life, Day of Reckoning, won Best of Show in the prestigious Best of the Southwest art show. I was also chosen with a handful of other artists to exhibit during a NATO conference also in Amarillo. A few years later, I was invited to exhibit my work at the Oklahoma State Capitol where I had a one-man show in the Governor’s Gallery. That same year, I was asked by the Oklahoma Arts Council to submit a design for a large mural for the Capitol.

In 2010, I won Best of Show with my painting, Hear, O Israel which is based on Deuteronomy 6:4 and was inspired by a trip to Israel. In January 2012, I was invited to solo-exhibit at the Leslie Powel Gallery in Lawton, Oklahoma. Currently, a few select works are on display at the Fredericksburg Art Gallery in Fredericksburg, Texas.

On occasion, I give lectures on composition and other topics, and in addition to being on the teaching roster with the Oklahoma Arts Council, I regularly teach drawing classes at the Goddard Center in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Characterized by a strong, classical sense and multi-layered symbolism, my work reflects the feeling of a bygone era. But I also want them to generate their own lively spark that comes from engaging the present moment. Between those two essential influences, my hope is that each piece — and the stories they tell — stand the test of time.