I began planning my career as an illustrator way back when I was a kid growing up in Morton, Illinois. My heroes were guys like Norman Rockwell, the Leyendecker brothers, N. C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, as well as fine art painters like Rembrandt, Sargent, and Richard Caton Woodville—to be a little more obscure— among many others.

Childhood in Illinois was a great experience for me and to some extant I will always be an Illinois boy. I can only assume that the voluminous and protracted consumption of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn during the formative years has some permanent genetic effect on the brain. (Some would see this as a negative, but being a corn-fed mid-western boy, I kinda like it.) What remains is a general warm feeling for all things Americana and a fondness for small towns.

After high school I intended to attend the University of Illinois for a fine art degree but found out that two years of foreign language was required just to get into the program. This information came halfway through my senior year, so I attended a junior college to pick up the language credits. It was only much later that I discovered that, if I had switched to an illustration degree, the language requirements wouldn't have been needed. (High school guidance counselors take note.) Junior college just didn't inspire me and there were no art classes involved, so I did the irresponsible thing and dropped out. (Kids, stay in school! Well, actually, it worked out for me pretty well, but stay in school anyway!) So I found myself, at nineteen years of age, looking for a change while still wanting to be a painter and illustrator. Chicago was a possibility and New York would have been the most obvious choice, but my choice was less sophisticated than that.

In 1978 I left Illinois for Los Angeles, California. The choice was based strictly on pragmatic concerns—my sister lived there and I could intrude upon her and her husband for a place to live. To her husband I became the brother-in-law who wouldn't leave. This lasted about six months before he got tired of me and “helped” me find an apartment of my own—a very, very small one with a Murphy bed that didn't quite sit level, having been installed prior to the stained carpeting. But now I was on my own and enjoying new friends in sunny Southern California.

I found work at a ski and sports store in Glendale, CA thinking I could get good deals on skis and spend my winters in snowy bliss. Unfortunately, when there was snow, I was the one that had to rent skis to customers who then got to spend their winters in snowy bliss. The good news was that the job led to me first art related employment at a silkscreen T-shirt printing company where I learned really good hand lettering skills form the owner, an old-timer from the forties. This job eventually led to a very humble freelance career as a logo designer and illustrator, but it did provide a lot of very valuable business experience. I still thought that a traditional career as a painter and illustrator was where I was headed. I was wrong.

As Providence would have it, I ended up (through a friend of a friend) working at KABC Television in Hollywood, illustrating news graphics. They looked at my odd portfolio of paintings, illustrations, and t-shirt logo designs and as it tuned out, that collection of skills was just up their alley. They took me on as daily hire. KABC was very busy with the 1984 Olympics and the staff of artists numbered around twenty. This was my first experience working with a large number of other artists and it was a pivotal learning time for me. We were still using traditional methods of paint, airbrush, and rubdown type, but within a year ABC obtained a Quantel Paintbox and my digital career began.

This soon morphed into computer motion graphics which began to include visual effects for television commercials. I soon found myself working at numerous design firms, TV networks, and post-production facilities throughout the LA area. It was an exciting time with the development of new technologies for design, illustration and animation. In 1990 I began working with Pittard Sullivan Design and stayed with them about three years earning a number of BDA (Broadcast Design Association) awards among other industry related awards, including a couple Emmy nominations. It was at Pittard Sullivan that I started using Apple computers which would change the very nature of the way I worked (if not everyone). To learn more about the television work, go to the motion graphics section of my commercial site.

This period of the early to mid nineties was the heyday of motion graphics when firms were big and so were the budgets. It also meant very long hours. It was fun, but I still though of my strengths being more illustrator and painter related so after a few years I went freelance again and divided my time between motion graphics and oil painting in order to try and enter the fine art world. For he next three years or so I designed motion graphics for the numerous companies that were calving off the larger design firm icebergs as well as the original bergs while producing as many oil paintings as I could.

Right around the same time, God, apparently, decided I needed a wife. I had been in six weddings throughout the late eighties and early nineties but none of them my own. And while I hade dated many fine and attractive women (who probably aren't, but may be, reading this) it wasn't until 1996 that I was blessed to be married to my wife Christina. We lived in an itt-bitty rental house in La Crescenta, CA where I converted the garage into a studio and split my time between the easel and the Apple.

I found a gallery in Scottsdale, AZ that liked my work and began selling my western theme paintings there. The paintings sold well, but the unfortunate reality was that my style of detailed realism was just too time consuming and limited my output to one painting every couple months. The costs of framing and gallery commissions made it clear that until I was quite well known and commanding high prices for my works, it would be difficult to make a living at it—commercial work prevailed for the time being.

By 2000 the motion graphics industry was in a slump due to lowering budgets forced by the dropping price of technology and the larger firms were disbanding into “design boutiques”. Lots of talented young designers were still coming out of design school with Macs at their side and I saw the writing on the wall. I was ready for something new and decided to capitalize on my photo-realist skills by seeking out matte painting work for feature films. (To learn more check out the matte painting section of my commercial site.)

I expected a long transition from TV to film but was pleasantly surprised to soon be working at Cinesite in Hollywood doing concept art and matte paintings for X Men 2. That was my first feature film and was quickly followed by Last Samurai and Matrix 3. I have been doing films ever since (but still do TV as well).

Amazingly enough, a family had blossomed from my marriage to Christina and we found ourselves with two wonderful kids. As a result, we started to develop a desire to move somewhere more like I had known growing up in Illinois with its creeks, forests (mostly corn forests), and lakes. Having visited friends on Bainbridge Island, WA for a number of years, we hoped to someday move there. We were finally able to in 2003.

Once on Bainbridge I started reading about the history of the island and an idea began to form—an idea that combined my classical painting skills, the technical skills I was now using in the film industry, my love of history, and the place I now call home. And that brings us up to date with the Port Blakely Project.

I still enjoy working on films and in television, but I do hope to devote more time to these images of Northwest history. I'm really enjoying it! I hope you enjoy the work as well.

Oh, and buy a print!