Bio

1/28/2010, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

After 25 years of not making much art, except for perhaps the occasional vacation sketch, my life changed in mid-2009, and I found I had more time to pursue my art again.  I had spent the previous 25 years focusing on my businesses in the swimming pool industry:  Pool Pal, 331 Pool & Beach Supply, and Pool School Florida.   The change in the economy in 2007 slowed my business growth, allowing me a much needed change of pace and more free time.  I first spent a good bit of that time regaining my physical fitness, and gradually expanded my self-improvement to nurturing my dormant creativity.

I’ve been “making pictures” for as long as I can remember.  My father was a artisan, crafting custom kitchen cabinetry.  My mother was an amateur oil painter, and her mother was a prolific china painter.  My interest in art must have worried my parents though, because even after all these years, I can still hear my Mom calling to me that I’d better be doing my homework and not painting again!

I was in second grade when I first received recognition for my art.  My class was assigned to write and illustrate a story about John Glenn, who was making history as the first American to orbit the earth.  A number of my classmates’ stories were published in the local newspaper (Brighton, Colorado), but mine was the only drawing to be published.  I was so embarrassed to be the only one — at the tender age of 7, I didn’t know that being singled out was a good thing!

I attended the University of Northern Colorado from 1972 to 1977, receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Art and in Health-PhysEd-Recreation.  I was certified to teach Art in Grades 6-12, and K-12 PhysEd.  I was hired to replace my own art teacher at Brighton High School, in Colorado, who had retired that year.  I taught the two-dimensional arts — basic design, drawing, painting, and commercial art, from 1977 to 1980.  The other teacher in my department taught sculpture, pottery, and jewelry.  I also coached the girls swim team and the girls junior varsity basketball team.

In the fall of 1980 I moved to Seagrove Beach, Florida.  In the mid-80′s, local photographer/framer Susan Foster invited me to be the featured artist in her gallery in Grayton Beach.  She provided studio space for me and she sold my watercolor paintings.  I was privileged to be there in 1989 when she and Jan Clarke and Kimberley Laws and a few other visionaries conceived of the idea for the first juried outdoor art show in Grayton Beach, now the annual nationally-recognized week-long event known as Artsquest.

At that time however, I was not prolific enough to support myself with my art.  Scrambling to pay the grocery bill, I started my pool service business, and art took a back seat.  Suddenly I found that 25 years had passed, and miraculously, I had time on my hands, so I dug out my art supplies.

Figure drawing is my first love in the visual arts.  It was my primary area of emphasis for my art major in college.  I had attended only a few live-model sessions since then.  It’s just not that easy to find artists interested in regularly scheduled figure drawing (as a subject, it’s unforgiving, and always humbling).   In August of 2009 I was thrilled to learn that figure drawing sessions were being held at Studio b.  I’ve been participating every Wednesday since then.  It had been so long that when I first started going, I felt like a person getting a drink of water after crossing the desert!  I still find it exhilarating.  The other artists who attend are enthusiastic, the models are invested in our success, and the energy is always positive.  The sessions go from 6:30 PM until 9:00 PM, after a morning workout and a full day of work.  There is nothing quite like figure drawing to help me learn how to see and how to portray what I see, a skill which translates to any other subject.  Sometimes when I am lucky, a figure drawing will end up being a completed piece of art by itself.  And I find many gesture drawings are at least presentable, expressing an immediacy that can rarely be achieved with a more studied effort.

I am so grateful for this opportunity.  So Thank You to Colleen Duffley, owner/creator of Studio b.  May your concept succeed!

And another Thank You to Warren Tape, who set up my website, and with infinite patience is helping me learn how to use it.

1/28/2010, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida