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My career as an artist began in Louisville, Kentucky at an early age. I would often try to reproduce the advertising plates from the newspaper of cars and bottles originally done with scratchboard. I also had a strong interest in the cartoon section and would attempt to copy what I saw. The nearest thing to art training in Catholic school was poster making, and getting the desks lined up straight. In this situation, art was something you learned from your peers. If enough people tell you that they like your work, you start thinking of yourself as an artist. You gain confidence in your abilities, and take pride in your talent. You therefore move forward on your journey as an artist. I don't remember being around much art as a child. I grew up with my friends that had no pictures on their walls other than photographs of the family, racehorses, or the ever-popular Praying Hands. In my home we had a watercolor done by my mother in the Nineteen Twenties. This was a beautiful landscape of the forest with a stream running though it. I was quite proud of her work and drew much inspiration from looking at this picture. I felt that I was inheriting her talent in some way. On my tenth birthday, my parents gave me a book on how to draw cartoons. I loved this book, and was happy to explore the instructions. By the time I got to my teens, my interest in art had all but disappeared. These years were spent listening to music and having fun. I liked Rhythm and Blues and Jazz. Louisville was a pretty good music town. I got to see The Norman Grantz Jazz at the Philharmonic show, Stan Kenton, and Dizzy Gillespie as well as Chuck Berry, Joe Turner, and Big Momma Thornton -- all of this when I was about eighteen. Earlier, I had listened to Blue Grass, Country, and Big Band tunes from the Forties. The music was always there, defining the life and times around you. I can't imagine what life would have been like with art always there. In the Fifties, we did have Jackson Pollock on the cover of Life magazine, however difficult it was to see the relationship to ones life. The other art was Norman Rockwell's. Again, it was equally difficult to see any personal relationship to his ideas. It wasn't till later in the military that my interest in art was revived. I was stationed on Guam when Lust for Life came out with Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh and Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin. This was my first exposure to the romantic lives of artists. I was convinced that this was the life for me. I began taking art classes at the base hobby shop. Every weekend I would go to make drawings and watercolors in the small villages around the island. My work wasn't that good. I was trying, and the important thing was that I had gotten serious. Back in the States, I took more art classes and a job with a sign painter till I finished the military. I then went to Los Angeles to attend college. I wasn't on the GI Bill so I worked weekends to support myself. I worked for four years at The Insomniac Coffee House on Pier Ave. in Hermosa Beach, and two years across the street at the Light House Jazz Club. I heard enough music during these six years to last a lifetime. The Insomniac started out as a Beatnik coffee house and later grew into a well-known music club for the Folk scene. The club was owned by Bob Hare. He had a bookstore and art gallery as part of the club. Bob sold my first painting there in 1959 for forty dollars. I was quite proud. It was an abstract cityscape. Some tourist from NY bought it. I thought it might have reminded him of home. He sold quite a few paintings for me during my four years there. The interesting thing about the Insomniac was the music, and the musicians that were booked there. Sam Cook's agent, Bumps Blackwell, booked most of the acts. Many of them later developed Rock careers. The Chambers Brothers, Mel Carter, Carson and Van Dyke Parks. Steve Young, Jack Elliot, Dave Van Ronk, and folk heroes like Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Jessie Fuller, and many others. The Light House was equally dynamic. This club was known as the home of West Coast Jazz. With Howard Rumsey's Ligh House All-Stars. For the two years I heard Jazz greats every weekend. Art Blakey, Mongo Santa Maria, Jimmy Smith, Gerald Wilson's Big Band with Harold Land, Teddy Edwards, and Art Pepper. Also appearing were Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McCray, Mose Allison, Jimmy Rushing, and many more. These were great jobs. They provided plenty of entertainment on the weekend, and didn't get in the way of my studies. In 1963 I attended The Otis Art Institute (which later became the Otis/Parsons School of Design). I graduated in 1967 with a BFA and MFA. Art school was very rewarding. I was extremely fortunate to be there during those times. I had been working with abstraction, but I now became interested in Pop art as reflected by Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Johns. British Pop artist R. B. Kitaj was my main influence for photo imagery. The cartoon references of Lichtenstein Patrick Caulfield fascinated me. Their work represented a strong presence though graphics. The students had great variety in their own work, each being different than the other. We seemed to have everything, Action Painting, Pop, Assemblage, Conceptual, Minimalism, Bay Area Funk, and the Harry Who from Chicago. Oh yes, top forty music playing in the halls. We were also experiencing a cultural revolution, a musical revolution, assassinations, and a war in Viet Nam. These were indeed unusual times. In 1966, at the invitation of Brian Wilson, I created album cover art and seven booklet illustrations of lyrics for The Beach Boys Smile Album. This grew out of a collaboration with Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. The Album and Booklet were on view at the grand opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. I went to work for the Long Beach Museum of Art in 1968. I was a preparator, and a guest curator for an exhibition of Temple Street Artists and Long Beach Artists. This show was reviewed by Art International, Art Forum, and William Wilson, art critic of the Los Angeles Times. During this period I operated a Serigraphy work shop, and printed works for many artist including Arthur Secunda, Jerry Simon, Pete Freitas, John Lees, Dan Gualdoni, John Gallagher, and Mason Fong. I moved my studio to San Francisco in 1971 where I printed Serigraphs for Collector's Press. These projects were portfolio covers and posters for Jose Cuevas, Fritz Scholder, and a rock poster artist, Robert Fried. As for my own work, I printed a suite of prints based on imagery of my memories of Kentucky. I continued my work as a preparator at the San Francisco Museum of Art. I taught Serigraphy at the Museum School, University of California at Sonoma, and The San Francisco Art Institute. Since then I have continued to exhibit my work through out the US and Mexico, with collections in Museums, Colleges and private ownership. After spending some time living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I have returned to work in San Francisco.
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