About Me

My grandmother was an accomplished watercolor artist and as a child, I stole into her studio one day and "borrowed" a piece of her charcoal and sketching paper. She caught me.  But instead of being angry, she sat me down and taught me how to draw and paint. Years later, I had the opportunity to study with and help American master sculptor Ed Dwight with his 12-foot bronze statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that stands today outside Morehouse College's King Chapel in Atlanta, Georgia.   Before the Russian/Ukrainian master stone and gem carver Vasily Konovalenko died, he saw my work and invited me to study with him. 

While a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol leader (a LRRP) in Vietnam, I was shot in the head during a combat mission.  The wound left bullet fragments in my head and resulted in severe migraine headaches, which I still endure today.  In 1993, I suffered a migraine that caused a stroke which, in turn, took my eyesight in just 30 minutes.  After losing all but a pin dot of my eyesight, I found myself divorced and the blind single parent of two preteen daughters.  I was also unable to continue teaching at the University of Colorado and lost all confidence to continue with my art.

I was also angry.  So angry in fact that I destroyed my motorcycle with a crowbar and trashed my unfinished art pieces with a baseball bat and ripped up most of my notes, drafts and records.  It took many years to accept being blind.

In 2000, at the encouragement of my children, I began to produce art again.  Slowly.  I kept working and re-learning the profession - learning how to do my art without the eyesight an artist so desperately needs.  It has been a long process but I finally remastered the skills - using a variety of special lenses, but the art and the quality are finally there again.  After years without art, once again, I love what I do.

Today, I have developed two entirely new painting techniques, I have three books published on art, and my monofilament and abstract linear paintings, scrimshaw, and other works are collected internationally.  My art has won numerous awards, including the VA National Gold Medal for Fine Art, the Sargent Art Supply Company National Award for Art, and I have been honored as a Kennedy Center Registered VSA Artist in both the visual and literary arts. My work is in the permanent collection of the MOSA Museum in Seattle, WA, exhibited at the Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO and has been featured on the PBS NewsHour, in The Saturday Evening Post, The Week (US edition), Colorado Public Radio, and many other media and news outlets.

"Never has writing a check been such a pleasure for me. You are a wonder!" -Dr. S. Meadows

"A few times in my life have I been able to look back and say to myself, 'That was a GREAT decision on my part.' You are one of those times I will add to that list. You are a true master and I can not thank you enough!" -D. Marsalis.

Outside of my art, I enjoy my children, my writing, and my continued study of the martial arts.  In 2002, I became the only legally blind man to ever win the men's fighting competition at the Martial Arts "Tournament of Champions."  After five full-contact bouts in one day, I left the tournament with three cracked ribs, a dislocated left knee, torn rotator cuff, a black eye and the trophy as Tournament Fighting Champion. In 2004, I most humbly achieved the rank of Shodan - a Shaolin black belt.