The urge to draw, color, and create has always insisted on being a part of my life. Growing up, I always cherished my quiet downtime away from competing in sporting events and running around the neighborhood being the curious type kid. I would spend countless hours buried in coloring books and drawing up my favorite cartoons with the occasional nod to sports heroes. Although I have always been the curious type and enjoy learning and trying new things, I admittedly picked up the guitar at age 13 for motives that were more of a social flex and me wanting to fit in with my older brother and his friends. Unbeknownst to me at the time, music and the guitar would gradually become more and more important and end up being what I understand as the greatest balance and inspiration for my artwork. I always found that words could quickly become messy or confusing and I could more freely and truly navigate and express myself through playing the guitar and making visual arts. I find bringing life to inanimate mediums to be a fun challenge and rewarding endeavor towards honest self-expression.

Once I started high school, I began more formal studies where I ate up every art based class that my schedule would allow. I would move on to complete a Bachelors of Art degree in graphic design with a Minor in photography in 2010 from Kent State University. While attending college at KSU, I learned many professional, technical, and formal design, branding, marketing, photography, and illustration practices. It was also at Kent State where I learned and began to watercolor paint. My freelance career began in 2006 with my photography, and have been actively freelancing and pursuing the creative field ever since.

Over the years since I started my freelance career in 2006, I have taken on many jobs for photography, graphic design, and illustration. In 2017, I found myself spread thin and burnt out by a take whatever comes my way freelance approach. By that point in my life and creative endeavors, I knew I could accomplish whatever came my way, but I never took the chance to put the time into a more focused career and the things that really drove me to be creative. But by taking a new chance in the arts by going back to college for art education in the fall of 2017, I eventually led myself back to my roots. I was drawing again every day. It felt right. In the interest of learning a new medium (oil painting) while back in college, I afforded myself an opportunity in the Masters of Art program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for painting and drawing. Though the program ultimately didn’t end up being the right fit for me, it did serve the greater purpose of me practicing strictly fine arts for a years time which lead me to discover direction for myself and career outlook. I had a reconnected purpose within the arts. With my newfound love for drawing, and now painting alike, I set out and found myself a studio to work from so I could really start building the foundation of my dreams. Making gallery type art and beautifully handcrafted original works.

Much of my work is fueled by deep undertones of human emotion, whether it is mine or reflections of others I have read/listened to or pondered about. Often times, I attempt to capture the wonders of life’s natural beauties and provide moments of a sense of purity or transparency for the viewer. A conscious attempt for honesty in what you’re viewing and how I am conveying it. Studying the weather has always been something that had moved me visually and creatively. In art, it is easy to obsess over control, and weather is a miraculous thing that no matter how much we prepare for, we cannot control. I try and leave room for those unplanned moments in my work, because when they happen they are usually special.

Over the years, I have done freelance work for some notable clients including Patti LaBelle, The University of Notre Dame, The University of Louisville, Red Sun Rising, and have been hired to photograph notable persons such as Joan Jett & the Black Hearts, Colin Powell, Vince Neil, Joe Theismann, and Ed Viesturs.