Who am I? and How I did I get here?
I live in rural Southwestern Virginia with my beautiful wife, "Misty" and our son "Tavish". In addition I am a Assistant Professor at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, where I teach various art courses. We have a small department and this requires us each to be something of a "jack of all trades". My own primary means of expression is printmaking, but I also expand my artwork into the areas of papermaking, sculpture and painting. Growing up my father was in the military, so I have lived in numerous locations around the USA. I received my BFA from Arizona State University and then went overseas to receive my MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.
Artist Statement
The vast majority of my work deals with ideas of travel or passage. I began in grad school with the idea of the labyrinth and have expanded from there.
My work is an attempt to document a person’s journey or passage through life. I try to portray this passage as a shaman-like journey through halls and along paths illustrating the choices and restrictions of the paths we choose. This journey is shaman-like in the fact that the search for knowledge and self-betterment are (ideally) foremost amongst our goals. It also follows the idea that a shaman’s path is a personal journey, which receives only little outside help.
This documentation of these maze-like passages, loosely follows the Taoist idea that it is the journey itself, rather than the perceived goal, which is of the utmost importance.