Artist-Teacher Bio

I am an artist, decorative artisan, and art teacher living with my wife and our four children in West Chicago, Illinois. Most of my artwork I describe as contemporary narrative realism, with oil on canvas being my preferred medium. Making art has always been part of my identity since early childhood. It was without hesitation that I chose to be an art major in college. In 1987, at the age of 20, I travelled to the stunningly beautiful city of Florence, Italy to study art and art history at a small school for foreign students called Scuola Lorenzo de Medici. During the months I lived in Florence, I immersed myself in art history and spent many hours analyzing the great Renaissance masterpieces that hang in the Uffizi Gallery and Michelangelo's sculptures at the Academia. This experience had a lasting and profound impact on me, which I credit as being greatly influential on the future development of my own artistic principles and practices.

After returning from Italy in 1988, I continued art school and went on to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Illinois state University in 1989, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from The University of Iowa in 1993. While at Iowa I worked for two years as a scenery painter for the university’s theater department. As a scenery painter I developed the decorative finishing and mural painting skills that I would later employ for over twenty years as a decorative artisan and independent contractor.

Since October of 2011 I have been a member of the West Chicago Cultural Arts Commission, in which I served as the acting chairperson from 2013 to 2014. Currently I serve as the acting vice-chairperson. The commission oversees a number of important local cultural events and arts initiatives for the city of West Chicago, including the annual Art Banner Project, the annual Arteculture art exhibit, and various other public art projects and cultural events in partnership with People Made Visible and other area arts organizations.

Since the late 1980’s, I have regularly exhibited my work locally and regionally. Most recently, I exhibited my paintings at the McLean County Art Center in Bloomington, Illinois in a two-person show along with Bloomington sculptor Herb Eaton. In 2017 and 2018 I received two consecutive Best of Show awards at the Vicinity Art Exhibit held at the Norris Cultural Center in St.