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Artist’s Bio
Some of the earliest memories I have from my childhood in Wisconsin involve art – drawing in notebooks and going
to art exhibits with my older brothers. One significant exhibit in my development was seeing a Van Gogh
retrospective in Chicago.
After moving to the Columbia, South Carolina area, I was very fortunate to have attended Richland Northeast High
School where I had two outstanding art educators who fostered my development as a young artist. Both teachers,
Ansley Crawford and Kay Casey, instilled the necessary skills; but more importantly, they encouraged my
experimentation and pushed me to create art with a deeper meaning. During my sophomore year, they persuaded
me to apply to the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, a five-week summer program at Furman
University; and I was fortunate to be selected into the program. While there I took my first sculpture class under
renowned South Carolina artist John Acorn. Attending the Governor’s School changed my life. I knew then that art
would be a major force in the rest of my life.
It was sometime during my senior year of high school that I started thinking about teaching art as a possible
career. I attended the University of South Carolina, settling into the B.F.A. program with a concentration in
drawing. I credit two professors at USC with having a profound influence upon my college experience – Jim Steven
and Roy Drasites. I took numerous painting and drawing classes with each. And during my final semester, I
studied with Jim Edwards who also made an impact upon me in a short period of time. During my senior year I
started to create paintings that "broke the typical picture plane", in that they became three-dimensional paintings.
Looking back, I can now see that this early work has influenced my current work in my use of layers. Artistic
influences during this time, and continue to be, include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Anselm Keifer.
Throughout my final year of undergraduate study my two friends in the art department- Mike Williams and Mark
Bourlakas- influenced me as well. Actually, I think we all influenced each other. We all maintained studios in The
Black House on campus. We painted like crazy... all the time. There was a lot of "art energy" among us.
Upon completion of my degree at USC, I spent a year enrolled in the graduate program in studio art at California
State University at Sacramento and briefly attended the San Francisco Art Institute. During this time, I took my
"three-dimensional paintings" a step further by creating several installations and Earth Art at this time. After more
than a year in California I decided to come back to USC and pursue my Master’s in Teaching to become an art
teacher. While enrolled in the art education program at USC, I studied under Dr. Phil Dunn and Dr. Cynthia Colbert
who both influenced me greatly. They both always encouraged me to be “me” as a teacher, and to teach to my
strengths. They gave me the freedom to grow and develop as a student of art education and later as a
professional art educator.
My first job as an art teacher was at Dent Middle School where I spent my first three years of my teaching career. I
then went to Richland Northeast High School, my alma mater, for two years. Following that, I accepted a teaching
position at Dorman High School in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where I have been teaching for the last ten years.
I have been fortunate to study under some of the finest art educators and artists that anyone could assemble, and
their impact upon me extends more than they will ever know. I am the teacher and artist I am today because of
these wonderful and caring artists and art teachers.