More About Me:

I was born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio and currently reside in Ashtabula with my wife, Destinie. I was an honor roll student throughout high school and college and graduated Magna Cum Laude in the top 15% of my class from Kent State University with a Bachelor’s Degree. My major is in Criminology and Justice Studies and my minor is in Sociology. I also have an Associates of Arts Degree. Outside of my career in the Arts, I’ve worked for the juvenile justice system as a Corrections Officer and then worked as a Caseworker and Assessor for Children Services before finding my place as an Art Teacher within the schools. I also teach Social Emotional Learning, Career Clusters, and facilitate a Boys Council Circle within the schools I work in. 

I love classic rock music and am a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I have absolutely NO musical talent but much of my artwork revolves around the music I like. So far I’ve been to some legendary concerts including Fleetwood Mac three times, Alice Cooper eight times, KISS twice, Stevie Nicks twice, Def Leppard twice, Motley Crue twice, Depeche Mode twice, Cheap Trick twice, The National four times, The Used twice, Rob Zombie twice, Ministry twice, Filter twice, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, The Cure, Pavement, Patti Smith, The Walkmen, Heart, Bon Jovi, Poison, Joan Jett, The Killers, Johnny Marr, Escape the Fate, Story of the Year, Taking Back Sunday, and more! Live music heavily inspires me to do art and is what led me to doing a full exhibit of 40+ large scale Rock & Roll musicians that was displayed at a handful of different local galleries. 

I love animals and my wife and I currently have four cats; Nova and Graycie were my wife's cats when we met and then in September 2023 we adopted our senior cat, Elizabeth from a local pet rescue. And at that same time, a stray showed up in our front yard that we fell in love with and rescued that we named Bowie. I also had a Golden Retriever named Lacey throughout high school and college who passed away in 2021. She was my main inspiration to start drawing and painting portraits of pets and I did many of my first animal drawings and paintings of her. She was the best companion and spent many hours in the studio with me while I created my artwork.