My first attempts at art were pencil drawings. I liked drawing odd creatures on wheels as I remember. The medium? Backsides of surplus orchestra announcements of my grandfather’s and any pencil I could find. The ones available were always soft black graphite. They were my grandmother’s crossword pencils. She kept them sharp and we used them “all the way up”. I would have been 5 or 6. This took place in a “warm in the winter”, “cool in the summer” cellar that looked like an antique shop. But it was living space and it was where my grandmother spent those days watching her TV programs, working her crosswords and administering to my sister and me. We spent the weekends of our youth there and both consider those days profoundly important.

I spent my school years in the art department doing more of the same. The paper was a little better.

My first formal art instruction was from Atlanta College of Art. Though I was more proficient at flat art skills I gravitated towards the people and energy in the sculpture department. I learned the basics of bronze casting, steel fabrication and blacksmithing. Any one of these could fill a lifetime. I fell for steel fabrication, turning steel mill scraps into sculpture. BFA 1978.

Next I did a short stint in “the graphic arts”. I was already good with technical pens and a stickler for accuracy so I was useful but with no formal graphic art training I felt out of place. Had I not moved on when I did, I would have been replaced by a Macintosh.

I connected with the best local sculptor I could find, Charles Parks. I worked with him for 7 years making all sizes of plaster molds, fiberglass models and finished bronze sculptures. I learned his unique methods through repetition and he instilled in me intangibles that I value to this day.

I soon started freelance sculpting at two well known companies in the region. That allowed me to make a good living but the work was at a much smaller scale than I was accustomed to. I found the small scale just as rewarding and that my skills were in demand. Thus was the start of a career where scale became irrelevant. Large scale starts off small. Once its composed it can then be enlarged with mechanical assistance.

I’m in my 30th year as a professional sculptor. As of this writing I split time between a large city studio and a smaller suburban one. I have everything I need to create clay models from HO scale up to 16 ft. Anything larger I get assistance from the foundry where I get my work cast.

Being close to Philadelphia, DC and New York provides me with opportunity for inspiration. Nine out of ten days I’m working on some form of sculpture whether it’s commercial, private or speculative.

Once I decided it was art for me I studied at it hard by doing and got better. Regardless of size or importance, every project in front of me receives the full benefit of my skill, resources and of course my pencils.