Biography
My life as an artist began early in Louisville, Kentucky where I was born. My influences at the beginning were graphic images I found in the comic section, and news paper adds I would try to reproduce these by copying what I saw. My indipendent creativity didn't develope till I got into kindergarten and learned to put the sun in the upper right corner of the page which seemed to be the favorite location of the other students. When I left kindergarten for Catholic shcool, art projects became
poster making and lining up the desks. There was not a lot of opportunity to learn where the sun would go. If enough of your peers tell you they likeyour work, you start thinking of yourself as an artist.
Growing up, I don't remember being around much art a child. My friends and relatives didn't have much on the wall that resembled art. You might see an etching or lithograph of James Audubon's bird studies, or something to do with race horses, religious saints, a crusifix or the ubiquitous praying hands. My aunt had a print of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, but no one refered to the artist, just the supper. My mother had painted a watercolor of the forest with a stream running through it. It was framed and hung on the wall. I looked at it often and was proudof her tallent and thought I might have inhereted some of it. One of my birthdays, my parents gave me a book on how to draw cartoons. I loved this book. When I got to my teens, my interest in art had all but dissappeared. I looked to music and movies for art. I picked up art again in the military. I got discharged in 1959, and went to Los Angeles to attend Otis Art Institute. I graduated in 1967 with BFA and MFA degrees.
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