About Me

I spent 25 years doing graphic design and I loved it, riding the wave of the industry's digital revolution. As an art director with a Denver-based marketing firm, I did work with Disney and Universal Studios and hotels around the country. Our team won numerous design awards over the years, including an international award for a campaign we created for the City of Cheyenne. I was working in a creatively charged environment, still I felt ungratified as an artist. I needed to work with my hands. I felt compelled to make something tangible. I began doing flat work in various mediums—pastels and oils were my favorite—but I wanted something even more tactile. A friend handed me my first lump of clay, which quickly turned into a polar bear, and I was hooked. 

I started night classes sculpting wildlife with Gerald Balciar at the Art Students League of Denver, and soon my interest expanded to figurative sculpting. Attending a workshop by Victor Issa on sculpting the human head changed everything for me. Right away I got a commission to do a portrait, and then another, which led to a summer internship with master sculptor and painter, Doug Scott, at his studio in Taos, New Mexico. In the years since I have constantly had a portrait commission in my studio, much to my delight!

My first life-size, full figure sculpture was of a local character, dearly loved by the community for his genuine smile and kindness, who was struck and killed by a car while picking trash out of bushes by the side of the road. John Breaux was everyone's friend, and mine too. The City of Louisville and John's family commissioned me to create a sculpture of him on his bicycle. Louisville residents contributed enough to pay for the production of the bronze, I donated my time and studio, and some generous benefactors closed the gap. The piece has become a something of a beloved landmark, centrally featured on a live downtown video-cam and often adorned with scarves, flowers and holiday “bling”, which is the most gratifying part for me. 

Creating a memorial portrait presented an interesting challenge. With only a handful of photos, a short video and my memory to work from, I discovered that I have an unusual ability to create a compelling three-dimensional representation from the two dimensions of photography. As I was finishing John, my work came to the attention of a woman from Portland, Oregon, who had spent years looking for someone to create a memorial of her son, Andy. Creating a life-like representation of Andy is another experience I feel blessed to have been a part of.  

Happily, I also do portraits of living people. These commissions push my skills to higher levels and lead me to meet the most extraordinary people. Above all I am inspired by the human form and I love faces of every shape and kind. My aim in each piece is to capture the essence of a being and its story in that moment through movement and expression. Whether it's an animal or a person, this is what intrigues me. 

Looking forward, my desire is to explore the realm of more stylized, or abstracted, figurative work and to do a lot more wildlife sculpture. I find the possibilities endlessly intriguing and inspiration everywhere. I also crave new mediums, especially stone. 

Thank you for your interest! I hope you'll follow along as my body of work grows and my skills and style change and progress.