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Education 1995 - 1999 1991 1988 |
Even as a young boy growing up in the Shenandoah Valley, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I went away to college and majored in studio art. It took me until my senior year to ask myself... "How am I going to make a living?" I promptly decided to buy a computer (an Amiga 1000) and learn computer graphics. My senior exhibit was based entirely on the video and animation graphics I created while locked in my room for more than three months. With degree in hand, I set out to conquer the telecommunications industry. I freelanced at first creating weather graphics packages for television stations so small that the FCC could hardly find their signal. Eventually I landed a 'work your way up' job with an ABC affiliate as a master control operator. A master control operator has about the same level of stress as an air traffic control operator. It didn't take long for my evening slumber to be interrupted by nightmares of missing a two-minute commercial break, or forgetting to roll tape on the last satellite feed of Jeopardy. In seven months, I gave my notice and decided to go back to something I was good at... school! I enrolled, and one year later received my certification for teaching art in public schools. Certain aspects of teaching came natural to me, and others I had to learn the hard way. When you teach visual art, you actually teach many subjects simultaneously not the least of which are psychology and sociology. I have been teaching art in Fauquier County Public Schools since 1991 and at Liberty High since 1997 and I still enjoy teaching. Since I found a 'real job', I decided it was time to ask my girlfriend of five years to be my wife. Rivers hold special significance in our life. We were both raised near the banks of the Shenandoah River and I proposed to her on a swinging bridge over that same river. These days, Cindy and I enjoy kayaking rivers together. She brings a book to read while I paint on route. I will always try to balance my teaching with my making of art. This means that I will always work in several mediums. The medium I continually return to is stone carving. I started carving stone in college and stopped for a while to try computer graphics. In my first five years of teaching, I carved over seventy sculptures in stone and wood. Then I became a graduate student and focused on mixed-media assemblage works. Now, with my masters degree in hand, I return again to stone carving. |