When I was twenty-five, I knew that I was supposed to be a painter. Wherever I lived I found a place to go to art school. It started in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and continues to this day. Whenever I had a place to use as a studio, I painted. When I didn’t have a space, I painted in my head. It took some time, but finally I was able to start painting on a full-time basis.

In 1997, I was accepted to participate in the Empire State College (SUNY) Studio Art Program and I worked there until mid-2002. They gave me a studio to work in and invited renowned artists, museum curators, art historians and critics to conduct group lectures as well as critique the work of each of the program’s participants. From 1996 – 2005, I had the good fortune to spend almost every Monday afternoon working in the studio of Alexander Shundi in Amenia, New York. Alex is a great painter, has a deep knowledge of art history and is a teacher like no other. Alex taught me how to see; how not to be afraid of my imagination; and, most of all, how to create work that makes uncommon sense. I owe Alex a great debt of thanks.

During those years in the New York City area, I had some good fortune. I was included in a number of group shows and had five one-man shows in Connecticut and New York City. In 1997, I won an Award of Merit at Paperworks’97 (a national juried show). In early 2005, I moved my studio from the South Bronx to my new location in Leawood, Kansas. Since coming to the Midwest, I have been included in several group shows and have been invited to mount twelve one-man exhibitions, five of them in 2008.

I have enjoyed several other career milestones since moving to the Kansas City area. In 2006, I was invited to join the Hand Print Press, a group of printmakers working out of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. See our website: http://cas.umkc.edu/art/hpp/. In the fall of 2009, The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art located on the campus of Johnson County Community College will present an exhibition of prints created by the members of the Hand Print Press. www.nermanmuseum.org. The February/March (2007) issue of SPACES Magazine, a Kansas City area publication, featured an artist’s profile article on the progress of my art career since arriving in the Kansas City area.

Finally, in 2008, I was also invited to present work at the H&R Block ARTSPACE Flatfile Exhibition for works on paper. In addition, I opened a sculpture studio in Bucyrus, Kansas.

2009 has started off well with four one-man shows already scheduled and the potential of being included in a museum exhibition later this year. One of my paintings (“The Guardian Balances the Scales of Justice”) was selected by United States Senator Claire McCaskill to hang in her office in Washington, D.C. for the year 2009.