Right out of high school as a music major, I was asked to teach privately and found it to be a natural skill. For the next 10 years I took on many guitar and bass students while at the same time going back to school for Art. After many commissions, art related work and a degree fresh from art school, I traveled to Asia with my wife. What was supposed to be a casual trip became a totally transformative experience. I not only started a new family and got tons of teaching experience, but I also got to see how the other side of the world viewed art. I immersed myself in famous museums, graphic books, design and more, and reflected upon and truly appreciated differences in viewpoints between the East and West.

Previously I was just a painter but my new limited living quarters dictated that I do art on the computer. This led to illustrating, learning graphic design, and all the while studying ancient and contemporary Art. I broadened my perspective and opened up my world and incorporated into my practice all types of methods and habits which I'd never imagined I would or could do. Art became not just a passion, it became a way of life.

Just back last year to the States for our son's education, I now have the unique opportunity to open a shop and share all these ideas with budding young artists. We are only limited by our imagination, and armed with confidence, I know kid's can tackle works and projects way beyond what they thought possible. Becoming a father really opened up my world too, not just personally, but about what I consider art.

A couple extra things worth noting which have had a great impact on my thinking and direction were the many travels my family and I took to Japan and as a long term homeschool teacher of my son. Living in Asia for so long, we were in close proximity to Japan and so often went to both visit family there and for vacation and work. Japan has a rich artistic heritage which manifests itself in so many ways. The utmost regard for nature can be seen to be reflected in their history of art prints, neverending richness of their pattern design, and the design of the urban space. Even a small thing like a magazine reflects this love of natural design, in the clarity of the layout and the respect for rules, guidelines and proportion, and also when it's tasteful to break such boundaries. My visits to Japan have had a deep and lasting influence on the way I think about Art.

As parents deeply invested in our son's education, after trying out some alternative schools we decided to homeschool him for many years. This was partly due to the fact that we wanted him to spend more time with what we truly valued: Art, Literature, Music, Cinema and physical education. I think having the chance to work with my son gave me more freedom to explore the Art I loved and to share it with him, without any expectation. The result was that he developed a strong critical sense of everything visual and is not easily swayed by any trend or claim. Seeing this transformation of his thinking has inspired me to want to share with other kids the same broad, open approach to Art. I think after they take my class, they will really be able to get deeply into investigating who they really are and why they think and feel the way they do with images. And as I introduce students to so many different forms of art, I want to diffuse boundaries and cross disciplines because you never know where a stream of opportunity might be flowing!