I was born in 1964 in River Vale, New Jersey. I grew up in a richly creative environment, with wonderful, nurturing parents, and three talented brothers. Music, art, theater and the like were a consistent background in our daily lives. Drawing at a very young age, though typical for most kids, felt like something I would always be doing, my way to self-expression.
So, through the early years of making things and looking at things, I then attended art school at SUNY Purchase where I earned my BFA in panting and printmaking, studying under artists like Antonio Frasconi, Harriet Schorr, Scott Richter, Margot Lovejoy, and Murray Zimilies. After my schooling,
I moved into New York City. A few odd-jobs and a stint as the camera supervisor at the Village Voice, I then went to work in the studio of an artist whose imaginative work I had always been drawn to- Red Grooms.
His studio was a magical laboratory for creative innovation and wild productivity. We carved, poured, painted, sanded, suspended, submerged, coaxed, poked, and prodded, and had a blast with every new project.
I learned things that I don't think I could have learned anywhere else.
I was involved in making things that stretched the limits of my imagination.
I loved every nanosecond I worked there. All the while, I was doing my own artwork. But, as life does encounter its left turns, I suddenly found myself dropped into the world of art direction, becoming a production designer for film, television and theater. Yes, show business. Well, I sure flexed different, but related creative muscles there, and for about 18 years- working with such directors as Ang Lee, Steve Buscemi, Barry Levinson,
Hal Hartley, and Danny Leiner, designing projects like TV shows with puppets, serious dramatic films, stoner comedies, Superbowl commercials, and even created the sets and costumes for a production at the 1998 Salzburg Opera Festival.
That career had a good, long run, and there was rarely a dull moment. Soon, however, I became restless. I had gotten myself a getaway home in the country, and the more time I seemed to spend there, the less time I wanted to be in New York City. Don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but something about slowing down a little and getting a different perspective on things somehow felt right for me. Just what the self-doctor ordered. So, I started to shift from show biz mode, and found myself painting again. The gorgeous scenery where I live was a powerful catalyst for re-focusing my creative self from the movie studio to the painting studio. I still, to this day, dip back into the movie world from time to time, where I work as a scenic artist, and have worked on films like The Bourne Ultimatum, The Devil Wears Prada, The Adjustment Bureau, and Munich. I like that work, and it has helped sustain me, but I have become, over the past few years, devoted to my life as a studio painter.
So, the work is all me now, and as the local landscape continues to inform and inspire, my path of expression has been shifting from the representational to images which are more allusive and in some ways more internal.
So, through the early years of making things and looking at things, I then attended art school at SUNY Purchase where I earned my BFA in panting and printmaking, studying under artists like Antonio Frasconi, Harriet Schorr, Scott Richter, Margot Lovejoy, and Murray Zimilies. After my schooling,
I moved into New York City. A few odd-jobs and a stint as the camera supervisor at the Village Voice, I then went to work in the studio of an artist whose imaginative work I had always been drawn to- Red Grooms.
His studio was a magical laboratory for creative innovation and wild productivity. We carved, poured, painted, sanded, suspended, submerged, coaxed, poked, and prodded, and had a blast with every new project.
I learned things that I don't think I could have learned anywhere else.
I was involved in making things that stretched the limits of my imagination.
I loved every nanosecond I worked there. All the while, I was doing my own artwork. But, as life does encounter its left turns, I suddenly found myself dropped into the world of art direction, becoming a production designer for film, television and theater. Yes, show business. Well, I sure flexed different, but related creative muscles there, and for about 18 years- working with such directors as Ang Lee, Steve Buscemi, Barry Levinson,
Hal Hartley, and Danny Leiner, designing projects like TV shows with puppets, serious dramatic films, stoner comedies, Superbowl commercials, and even created the sets and costumes for a production at the 1998 Salzburg Opera Festival.
That career had a good, long run, and there was rarely a dull moment. Soon, however, I became restless. I had gotten myself a getaway home in the country, and the more time I seemed to spend there, the less time I wanted to be in New York City. Don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but something about slowing down a little and getting a different perspective on things somehow felt right for me. Just what the self-doctor ordered. So, I started to shift from show biz mode, and found myself painting again. The gorgeous scenery where I live was a powerful catalyst for re-focusing my creative self from the movie studio to the painting studio. I still, to this day, dip back into the movie world from time to time, where I work as a scenic artist, and have worked on films like The Bourne Ultimatum, The Devil Wears Prada, The Adjustment Bureau, and Munich. I like that work, and it has helped sustain me, but I have become, over the past few years, devoted to my life as a studio painter.
So, the work is all me now, and as the local landscape continues to inform and inspire, my path of expression has been shifting from the representational to images which are more allusive and in some ways more internal.
