statement

When I was about four or five years old, growing up in a little West Texas town, my dad owned a 1949 Chevrolet sedan. I thought the car was as sleek and beautiful as a rocket ship. It stood out against many of the other cars, which were Model As, even Model Ts. I asked my dad why they looked the way they did and he said "They're old."

So in my child's mind I thought that cars of brilliant candy-colored red, green and blue grew old and turned flat black, their sleek lines sprouting fenders and detached headlights like ear hair. Their curved windshields no longer at a rakish streamlined angle but rectangular and vertical as fence posts. Their gleaming chrome hubcaps now bristling with spokes like wagon wheels.

I had made my first leap of the imagination.

I was once told that doing art is the great journey. With no roadmaps. No directions. Sometimes no known destination. And the only guidance you may be blessed with is intuition. Intuition fueled by imagination.

Although my work is representational and derived from nature, I leave it open to interpretation. I allow my intuition to guide me. Sometimes it doesn't work and I'm in for a long struggle of painting and repainting. Sometimes intuition does its job and the paint flows like water onto the canvas. Magic time.

If you've read this far you're probably thinking "This guy's not very profound." Sorry, but this is how I feel about my work. I am not delving into my psyche or interpreting how the world works or doesn't work. I'm not questioning the order of the universe or telling you the symbolism in the wrapper of a Hostess Twinkie.

I'm just trying to make something that I can be excited about. Something that expresses life. Life as I see it.

bio

born: 1949, Eldorado, Illinois

education

North Texas State University, BS, 1971

selected awards/honors

CA Magazine Illustration Annual Award of Excellence, 2013

Designated official artist for the US Postal Service with the publication of the O. Henry Forever Stamp, 2013

Dallas Society of Visual Communications Golden Egg (a lifetime achievement award) 1999

Dallas Dallas Society of Visual Communications gold and silver awards, multiple years

selected publications

CA Magazine Annuals of Illustration and Design, multiple years

Creative Quarterly for both illustration and painting 2012 and 2013

selected group shows

New Texas Talent, Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 2013

Various shows, City of Dallas Bathhouse Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas, 2009-2011

Mary Tomas Gallery, Dallas, Texas, 2012

Current Trends in Print show, Elon University, 2011