Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others. -Orson Welles
About Me
I have had an abundant array of creative processes that I have explored over the years. Music, art, design and architecture are my main focuses with other interests in history, sports and film. I have been creative since my formative years and have honed my craft with training and experience throughout my adult life.
Music: My First Love
I grew up in a home filled with different music. My father was a musician that taught me about the guitar and demonstrated his deep love for country and bluegrass. I was a student of the music on the radio, listening the latest tracks that artists of the day released. My older brothers introduced my to other musical styles such as rock, metal, and progressive. George Jones, Bill Monroe, The Beatles, Black Sabbath and Rush were my early influences. When I was in middle school I joined band and excelled as a percussionist, winning awards and cultivating my musical talent. As I moved into college I was still focused on music, majoring in Music Education and Music Composition and graduating with a double Bachelors in 1994. After a brief stint as a band director, I found that the stress of administration outweighed my commitment to music education. I gave it up cold, only teaching a few lessons here and there. I drifted back into what I knew, the retail industry for many years without a thought about music.
The Artist's Realization
After ten years in retail and the closing of the company I had held a position at for so long, my creative drive returned, this time with a focus on art and advertising. I enrolled in a local technical school and two years later received an associate degree in visual communications. I looked for the "perfect" position in the industry, but sadly the offers were just not there, I had waited too long to get my career going again. I was not deterred, I found a position at the school I had got my degree from and taught full time for almost three years until the program I was teaching was phased out in favor of streamlining the school's focus. I had a tragedy that occurred around this time that sharpened my focus, my father passed away. That original creative inspiration that he gave me was rekindled, I enrolled in an online school and vowed to finish my master's degree that he had always wanted me to get. After a one year accelerated degree program was complete I finished at the top of my class and had a master of fine art in media design. Again, the frustration of finding that one job that would validate all my school work eluded me. I knuckled down and took an administration position at the school I had and taught at for many years. Something interesting happened while I performed my duties, my creative interest took an unexpected turn.
The Architecture of Design
As part of my duties at my new position in the school, I was required to tutor students in their classes. I was tasked with helping students get through the Microsoft suite of programs and completing their assignments. I grew interested in drafting and design while assisting a few students with basic problems. My creative spirit once again was in focus, I decided to pursue it further. Through my various degrees I had accumulated several credits. That coupled with the fact I got a huge discount on tuition made it easy, I was going back to school yet again. I finished a two year associate degree in one year, testing out of a few classes to speed things along. I put my creative spin on every project I did in this final installment of school, utilizing Autodesk Autocad, Revit, and Inventor to name a few. Learning architecture appealed to not only my creative right brain, but my intuitive left brain, it allowed me to finally get a position in a creative field of study using my drafting skills and not art or music.
