About the Artist

I was born in Vallejo, California and three days later I was transported with my twin brother to Clear Lake Highlands where I resided for the next sixteen years. I was the middle child in a family of ten children. We lived in a very rural area far from town. We lived one mile from one of the largest fresh water lakes in California and about a mile from a lumber company. This lumber company would in a few years become my art store.

As most children do I spent a great deal of my time drawing, coloring, making mud pies and beating my brothers up. Because we lived not far from a lake and the winter months kept us indoors we found many ways to entertain ourselves, one of which was to design and build rafts during the winter that would be ready to launch at the beginning of summer.

We of course spent hours figuring out how to move our very fine raft. Sometimes having to nail pieces that had fallen off of it back on before we reached the lake. Once there, we would launch the raft, pile on and most often stay afloat long enough to make it to the center of the lake.

Even though we some times had failures with our raft design and construction we continued to improve on them and in the process we became very comfortable in the use of building materials and tools. We also learned some things are an evolutionary process. With diligence, patience, ingenuity, focus we eventually built a raft that conveyed us to the other side of the lake.

It was during these outings to the lumber company collecting wood from the scrap piles to make rafts that a whole new world opened up to me. I went inside and saw huge bins filled with a variety of nails, screws, learned that there were screws for metal and wood, saw box after box and bag after bag of cement, plaster, mortar, and didn't have a clue as to what one would do with all of these things.

They had bails of different types of wire used for fencing and chicken coops, huge roles of rope in various diameters and wooden dowels in a variety of shapes and colors. I suppose my mother knew that in a relatively short time my brothers would not want me tagging along with them and I would then be at a loss for something constructive to do.

When I was about the age of five my mother decided she had a future artist and then went about supplying me with a variety of materials from which to draw from. Some of these materials included things we found on walks along the creek or through a field, such as twigs, rocks, pieces of weathered wood, and feathers.

We would return home with our collection and sort through, examine each thing, sometimes make stories up about the things we found and how it could have come to be where it was. We would give it new life by turning it into something else. We would set about sorting and washing the things that needed to be washed. When all the materials were dry we would talk about what we would like to make or how we would like to use these objects.

My mother would then bring out a huge box filled with an array of objects, some found from previous walks, some from leftover sewing projects, bottles of paste and glue, paints, colored pencils, scissors, and my favorite, empty Quaker Oatmeal boxes! Cut the right way with a few added pieces and exterior embellishments one could make beautiful drawstring handbags, doll cradles, and even cars when axles and wheels were attached.

The only thing the junk box lacked were instructions on what to do with all of this stuff! I did not realize at the time that not having instructions or everything laid out for me was a good thing. My mother in her wisdom new this. I had not yet developed the idea that there were no boundaries or rules. That came much later. There was no voice or mother saying this is right or wrong. Not having these concerns allowed me the freedom to explore and experiment with a variety of materials.

My mother, unknown to me, had put a wood burning tool into the junk box. It was up to me to take the initiative and learn how to use this tool, which I did. Once I learned to use this tool it added a new dimension to my work. My mother would often hand me art supplies with which I had no prior experience and tell me to make use of them. I always found this extremely frustrating and thought she should show me how to use them. It was years later, while attending the Academy of Arts and Hayward State, that I realized there was a method to my mother's madness.

My mother didn't show me how to use these products because she wanted to see if I would take the initiative to explore, experiment and incorporate these products, new and old, into my work. In her way she was teaching me to problem solve and promote the process of creative thought. So, thank you mom.

After art school I spent several years painting and very much missed working with other materials and sculpting. I found that I was becoming very bored painting on flat surfaces. I decided to stop painting for a while and spend some time thinking about what I would like to make. First I had to ask myself a few questions, such as: