Biography

I was born in Ft. Riley, Kansas in 1973 to a staff sargeant in the U.S. Army and his wife. My love of art and design began in junior high school with an art teacher named Frank Nevaquaya, who was a traditional Native American illustrator. Mr. Nevaquaya taught me to always do what I loved and have a sense of humor and I would be happy.

In high school, I ventured into journalism and desktop publishing at my high school newspaper. I designed advertisements using the first version of Adobe Photoshop and Aldus Pagemaker along with a Rapidograph pen and X-acto knife. Since then, I have never stopped using the computer and my abilities to create imagery in an attempt to help illustrate my life.

In college, I designed fliers and cassette tape covers for bands that I performed in and did the layout for my college magazine and newspaper, as well as working as a photographer, editor and writer for both. After college, I married my senior-year sweetheart and former boss and moved to Tulsa, Okla. From Tulsa, I commuted an hour each way to the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, where I worked as an assistant news editor and graphic designer sharpening my Illustrator skills creating news graphics and locator maps accompanying news stories.

After a year in Tulsa, we relocated to Dallas to try my fortune in the Internet working for Internet SportsStations. Less than one month later, the bubble burst and I found myself unemployed with a bucketload of worthless stock options. Luckily, I almost immediately got a position as graphic artist for the Met magazine, an arts and entertainment weekly. After two months, I was promoted to production manager where I learned the ins and outs of pre-press and production.

Following the Met's untimely buyout and dismemberment by a rival magazine, I bounced around temporary jobs learning everything I could about design, production and printing from the strong Dallas design community. I then settled in at the City of Denton where I worked for almost five years as graphic artist and web developer. I have now taken over responsibility for the Town of Flower Mound's online presence as its webmaster.

I currently live in Denton, Texas with my gorgeous little girls, Madeline and Finley (aka Wu-Tang).