About the Artist

I'll be honest.....art....it was never my favorite subject during most of my elementary and middle school years.  I did enjoy drawing Disney cartoon characters, but my love of art didn't spark until my father bought me 3 comic books after I had surgery.  I didn't know many comics except the high profile ones such as Spider-Man, Superman, etc, but I wound up deciding to follow the X-Men.  One month after starting reading that comic Jim Lee took over full time artistic duties.  I was hooked and wanted to learn to draw just like him and art started to take center stage in my life.

Upon graduation I obtained degrees in both Commercial Art and Computer Animation.  My dream of becoming an animator was realized in 2000 when I started freelancing part time at Kensington Falls Animation.  It was literally a dream job and I loved every moment....so much that I took work home with me.  I got to work on a number of television commercials for the studios various clients and spent 3 years working on small animated shorts that were created for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

4 years after starting my freelance animation career, I decided that I really wanted something more secure for a career as the animation business has it's ebbs and flows.  Sometimes there's work, sometimes there isn't.  I decided at that point to return to school and focus on sharing my love of art to children.  In 2008, I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Art Education and immediately started substitute teaching.

In 2011, I decided to try and split my focus of developing lesson plans with developing my own artistic abilities and learning new techniques that I can share with my students.  I decided after a couple years to try and learn printmaking techniques which I had not acquired while in college.  I was soon hooked on screen printing and soon thereafter became infatuated with relief printmaking, specifically the reductive method.

Inspiration comes to me in many ways and most of the artwork I produce is a place I've been and something I've seen.  I love seeing the way that light and shadow affect the environment around me. We all see these things that I'm talking about everyday of our lives.  Each time we go outside on a sunny day, the light creates an amazing world of shadow.  I see beauty in the way that shadows get cast on objects such as houses and signage.  Different styles of art also highly influence what I create. 

Education:
1997 AAS in Commercial Art and Design - Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood, PA
1999 AST in Computer Animation - Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 BS in Art Education - Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA

Exhibitions

2024 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 28th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)

2023 - Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts - Juried Images Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2023 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 27th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2022 - Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts - Juried Images Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2022 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 26th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)

2021 - Latrobe Art Center - 2021 Open Show

2020 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 25th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2019 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 24th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2019 - Manhattan Graphic Center - 4th New York International Miniature Print Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2019 - Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts - Juried Images Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2018 - Artist Image Resources - Printworks 2018 (Juried Group Show)
2018 - University of Pittsburgh Greensburg - The Artshow @ Pitt Greensburg
2018 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 23rd Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2018 - Manhattan Graphics Center - The Print Effect: Small Works/Big Impact (Juried Group Show)
2018 - Greensburg Art Center - Complementary (Juried Group Show)
2018 - Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts - Juried Images Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2017 - Manhattan Graphics Center - 3rd New York International Miniature Print Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2017 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 22nd Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2016 - Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts 21st Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition (Juried Group Show)
2016 - Greensburg Art Center - Rhythms (Juried Group Show)
2015 - Greensburg Art Center - Present and Past Perfect (Juried Group Show)
2015 - Pittsburgh Center for the Arts - Est. 1945, Student Exhibition (Juried Group Show)