bio

I woke up every Saturday morning at 6:30 in a small cold farming town in South Dakota to watch cartoons. The art I grew up with was animation, Norwegian folk art, and Native American art. As a child, I made 3 pieces that foreshadowed my artistic career: a primitive pencil rendering of my friend Scott skating (6yrs), a pastel drawing of a mouse waking up on Christmas day (7yrs), and to top it off, a portrait of Red Cloud holding a gun (9yrs).

As a teenager the family I found most accepting was the Sioux Falls Community Playhouse in South Dakota where at the age of 15 I found myself on stage in the chorus of Scrooged. I volunteered at the theatre until I was 19. I graced the stage in 9 musicals including Hello Dolly!, Annie Get Your Gun, and Evita. I think I sang off key in all of them but no one told me so. I also painted sets, worked the house, ran the fly system, and loaded the touring shows.

At 17, I painted my first art piece - my saxophone with a angst-ridden teenage poem as its background. That painting was a pivotal point where I decided to drop the alto saxophone that I had played beautifully for 7 years and study Theatre and Art at the University of South Dakota.

I was educated in theatre under Tim Case at the University of South Dakota. I received my BFA in Theatre Design and Technology in 1997. In 1999 I started my working life as a visual artist. Since then I have painted hundreds of murals and commissioned art pieces that live in homes and offices. Most of my favorite and best work is directly on the walls of kids’ bedrooms. I thrive on the performance part of painting in someone’s home. Having the family watch and sometimes participate in the painting makes the piece even more personal and rewarding for all.

The inspiration for my work comes from the children and folks who light up when they see my paintings; from my parents and family; from the strangers I draw/paint in my studies of the world around me; from artists that have come before me like Alice Neel, Duncan Grant, Franz Marc, Toulouse-Lautrec, David Hockney, Egon Schiele, Picasso, David Wojnarowicz, Diego Rivera, Brett Cook, William Walker; and from countless children’s book illustrators.