I'm and artist and musician born and raised in Clearwater, Florida. As far back as I can remember I was drawing pictures. By the age of 4 I would draw abstract scribbles on everything in the house. If I didn't have a crayon or other writing apparatus, I would use something sharp and carve the image onto floors and walls. A year or two later, I was drawing dinosaurs thanks to my Father buying me and my brothers the Time-Life Nature series books which had a big impact on my future interest in drawing because of the various animals I discovered, not just dinosaurs. Television was a big influence as well, the various science fiction and monster movies were a big hit with me. When I got more skilled I eventually moved on to more complex things like freight trains with the occasional dinosaur thrown in sometimes attacking the engineer. I took a keen interest in machinery when the road in front of my family's house was widened. I was impressed and inspired by the heavy earth moving machines that were used. Bulldozers, dump trucks, tractors, graders, and steamrollers. But paving machines were the coolest of all because they were such complex, bizarre looking machines. I expanded the subject matter with objects like power poles with transformers and wires, factories, power plants, smoke stacks, electrical transmission towers. Dinosaurs began morphing into creatures of my own design. Nude women was also a favorite subject and would be a recurring theme all through my life. I grew up with four brothers; Greg, Erik, Peter and  Stevie. Erik and Peter (unfortunately deceased) liked to compete with me for having the most twisted sense of humor and it was a lot of fun. They liked to draw as well but I had more experience and could gain an edge with my highly detailed violent and bizarre cartoons, pushing beyond the boundaries of bad taste and adding graphic pornography. Not wanting to be outdone by my younger brother Peter, who had a sicker imagination than mine, some of the drawings were really outrageous, usually people we knew or disliked were the subject matter, i.e., fellow classmates, teachers, neighbors, my own family, etc. I continued drawing cartoons for many years along with my more serious "low brow" art. I went on to draw surrealism by the time I was 15 letting my dreams and imagination run wild. I was also learning to play guitar and became a musician and started playing in Rock bands. I was fascinated with the macabre and the drawings were rather dark and unsettling. When I first saw the album cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Brain Salad Surgery" painted by H.R. Giger, his artwork inspired me in a huge way and I became more serious about drawing large format surrealistic pieces with pen and ink with focus on detail. I would spend months drawing extremely complex pieces, most of which I gave away or were destroyed or lost. In the mid 1980's I started a job drafting for a land survey firm where I discovered mylar (semi-opaque plastic paper used for making blueprints) and started using graphite and color pencil, my first "serious" pieces in color. I also started painting with acrylics, but that only lasted a short time. Detailed illustration was in my blood and I could not capture that with paint brush. Throughout the 1990's I took a break doing art and focused on my music. During the early 2000's I returned to my art and worked exclusively with mylar. I was also doing music but managed to start exhibiting my work in art shows and in local galleries. It was a prolific time for me and I sold or gave away almost all my pieces. In 2015 I decided to experiment with Photoshop and found I could express myself much better by scanning my drawings and enhancing them digitally. I eventually went to doing mostly digital paintings and started my trilogy about the Inca Empire after being inspired by Dr. William Sullivan's book about their history. I spent 3 years working on those pieces and began other large paintings and printed posters and giclée prints on canvas. I still write and perform music and switch back and forth between the two means of expression. I consider myself fortunate to grow up with a bit of talent and be able to escape into my own imagination by doing art. Some people think I have a natural talent for art, but I disagree. I became good at it because I spent my whole life doing it and a lot of practice will make you good at anything. And also a wild imagination which I got from growing up with my brothers and friends.