Artist Highlight

"My art career started as a teenager; when classmates discovered that I could draw reasonably good rock stars, and were willing to pay for them. I eventually took a more formal approach and started a formal art education. The roads of life were many; and I found myself serving 20 years on active duty in the Army, and then as a Department of Army civilian in Afghanistan, but I never strayed far from drawing, wood working and metal work. My passion for capturing the beauty in the outdoors led me to chase and repousse’; the pushing, moving, and raising of metal, to give a design its’ definition and details. It’s a combination of drawing and sculpting in metal. My practical training in jewelry began at The Mountain Metalsmiths School of Jewelry and Lapidary, which led me to chase and repousse’ training with El Maestro Fabrizio Aquafresca (a master in the art of chasing). Art can have many aspects, considerations and purposes, but for me, it’s capturing the smallest of details in a wildflower. Moving, pushing and raising the metal to convey both the beauty of the subject as well as that of the metal itself".