What has unfolded, thus far~

Hello, and thank you for visiting. Connecting through art and creativity is my favorite way of relating to other people, so I truly appreciate your interest!

When I was six, art reached me through another person’s story. After watching Titanic and seeing Jack Dawson’s sketches, I decided that I wanted to become an artist—and I have been trying to carry that feeling forward ever since.

I grew up in Northern California and began my formal training in a specialized high-school arts program. During that time, I began an internship with Charles Becker, an oil painter known for his Magical Realism. By the time I became the first person in my family to graduate from high school, that internship had grown into an apprenticeship. I learned how to prepare and repair canvases, mix the oil paints he used in the classes he taught, and eventually how to paint. That experience also led to my first paid work as an artist, creating portraits and mixing color for David Gordon’s murals.

Afterward, I studied art at my local junior college and began renting a small artist studio, where I worked on the portfolio that eventually led to my acceptance at ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. I studied Entertainment Arts and Illustration there, and bringing my atelier-style training into digital media was an enormous learning curve. My education continued through a mentorship with Thomas Borowski, who guided my learning and brought me along to various studios where he was working at the time. I also completed independent studies with character designers Adam Dix and Dustin Mackay before becoming Adam’s teaching assistant for his Character Design class. I graduated with honors from ArtCenter with a degree in Illustration and an emphasis in Entertainment Arts.

Since graduating, I have worked as a freelance character designer and color stylist with Devastudios on projects for clients including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Warner Bros., and Sony Pictures Animation, as well as with independent creators. I have also held many ordinary jobs alongside that work. Through all of it, I kept making work of my own—sometimes brightly and with confidence, and other times dimly and uncertainly. What remains is the work I have chosen to carry forward, and it is what you will find here.

While working one of those ordinary jobs, I happened to ring up Billy Zane’s groceries. I told him that Titanic had made me want to become an artist. He leaned across the counter, shook my hand, and began telling me about the paintings he had been making. For a moment, we unexpectedly connected through art that had continued moving through both of our lives.

To me, stories carry souls forward, and every project I make is dedicated to the stories and art that have captured me. The stories we have now exist because they were chosen by the people before us and carried through time. I hope to add to that long human tradition—and I hope that one day, you and I will connect through that shared love.