I was born November the 10th,
1970, in Cleveland, Ohio, and have lived there for most of my life. I grew up
across the street from an amusement park, the now defunct Geagua Lake/Sea World
of Cleveland, and spent a lot of time as a child hanging out there; I fell
asleep most nights listening to the sound of roller coasters, screams, and sea
lions. I think that had a sort of bizarre influence on me.
My only time outside of Ohio
was during a four year enlistment in the military. I am a veteran of Operation
Desert Storm, during which I was awarded three medals. I used the G.I. Bill to
study engineering at the Ohio State University, and I have worked as a design
engineer for a Cleveland-based plastics company ever since.
During college I worked a
number of odd jobs, continuing the amusement park trend. I spent a year working
the night shift in a sex shop where I was robbed at gun point, propositioned,
and groped by some of the strangest people I have ever known. I ran a 10 room
boarding house for delinquents, with tenants that included paranoid
schizophrenics, violent alcoholics, prostitutes, chronic compulsive
masturbators, and non-English speaking foreigners. I sold pot and ran a
marijuana grow-op, delivered art suppplies, sold windows and siding
door-to-door, washed dishes, and made shitty pay at about 10 different fast food
joints.
I believe creativity and
originality are the greatest human attributes. Some of my favorite artists
include Yves Tanguy,
Hans Bellmer,
Georgio DeChirico, and
Max Ernst. Favorite
writers include Kurt Vonnegut, Louis Aragon, William Burroughs, and Henri Michaux. Musically, I have listened to everything from blues to Buddhist
chanting; some of my recent favorites include
Cevin Key,
Birdy Nam Nam,
Quantic, and
Throbbing
Gristle.
I have been a heavy drug and
alcohol abuser for most of my life, and I feel guilty and ashamed of that fact
just about every day. I have also been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and
OCD, and I am permanently on medications that keep me functional. The two of
these combined have led me into some not-so-wonderful situations. I was homeless
at one point and hospitalized for a blood clot caused by years of abuse another
time. I continued using after the blood clot and came too from a blackout one
morning to find a loaded gun on the table in front of me, having no recollection
of how it got there. I checked myself into a rehab after that and have been
sober ever since.
I've been an active digital
artist for quite a few years, and consider myself a surrealist. I have won,
placed, or participated in numerous competitions. I've had work displayed in
gallery showings ranging from local Cleveland galleries (the
1300 Gallery, Gallery 324) to the Museum of
Computer Art. I have had work appear on book covers, album covers,
magazines as
far away as Japan, beer bottles, and I even did a show with
Storm Thorgerson,
the artist of Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd fame.
In my spare time I do a lot of
reading, internet surfing, and online gaming. I also
collect signed surrealist art, strange and
unique furniture, and other random oddities that grab my attention. Some of my
favorites include a human skull and dehydrated brain (they belonged to a Tibetan
Buddhist monk) and a signed lithograph from Mark Ryden.
I live alone with my cats, have recurring nightmares of tornadoes, and spend a lot of time thinking about amusement parks.
