Biography

I have had a fascination with both art and birds for as long as I can remember, which I think shows through in my work today.  I grew up as the second of 10 children on a farm in Missouri, and loved exploring the woods and fields.  My siblings and I were homeschooled which gave me a flexible schedule and I leveraged this to advantage in my childhood and teenage years, with it not being uncommon for me to be out birding or sketching in the morning hours.  My mom had a B.A. in Art and drawing lessons to local homeschool students, which I joined in on even before I was the age that the classes were targeting.  This early art education formed the foundation that I’ve continued building on to this day.   In my high school and early college years I was very active in developing my art skills.  

One of the earliest formative influences on my art was the Junior Duck Stamp competition.  I first discovered this competition in late 1997 from an ad in the Missouri Conservationist magazine, and since it combined my two loves of birds and art, I immediately started studying the rules and researching the ducks eligible.  This led me down a long path of self directed education into the wealth of native waterfowl species that we have in the US which even involved building my own small aviary and for a number of years keeping captive bred ‘wild’ duck species purchased from breeders that supply zoos.  My Junior Duck Stamp journey culminated in winning the 2004 National Junior Duck Stamp competition. Part of the award for this honor included travel to observe the judging of the Federal Duck Stamp competition, and the opportunity to study each entry in person was extremely inspirational, and I continue to be an avid follower of the competition to this day and attend in person whenever I’m able regardless of whether I have an entry submitted.  I’ve also administered a Facebook fan group “Duck Stamp Contest News” for the competition for over a decade now.

During the same high school development period, my growing awareness of all the ‘hidden gems’ of our native bird species (that the vast majority of people completely overlook due to simply not being aware of the birds that don’t show up in the backyard or at bird feeders) was also notably influenced by the American Birding Association’s Young Birder of the Year competition.  I participated in this competition several years and won the overall ‘Young Birder of the Year’ title in 2005.

While I continued minor progress in working on art pieces in the background, my art took a backseat for a time as I completed a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, and a masters in Electrical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and pursued a PhD in Robotics at Georgia Tech.  A variety of setbacks in my doctoral work, and long-covid health issues resulted in my needing to set aside the doctorate and pursue something with a more flexible pace.  Therefore, I brought my art pursuits back to the forefront and am again actively producing new art and further developing my craft.  

Recently, alongside my studio work, I’ve also taken my art outside the studio and have been exploring new artistic outlets in both mural art as well as plein air work.  The plein air experience has been particularly enjoyable and also challenging. In my first year participating in plein air events (2026), I’ve been honored to have been awarded an Honorable Mention award at both the Steeleville, MO plein air event as well as the Fall Riverfront Paint Off in St. Charles, MO and recieved the People’s Choice award in the Creve Coeur, MO plein air event.

And in an even more varied outlet of artistry, I’ve also been involved in various ways over the years with Fine Linen Theatre, the local live community theatre organization that my parents and siblings founded in 2002. In recent years I’ve enjoyed serving as lighting designer for our productions and ‘painting’ with light.  And while I have always been fascinated by lighting and atmospheric effects in painting, my work as lighting designer has given me even more appreciation and focus on including light and the interplay it has with the subjects of a painting as a key element in my work.