About Me

I love to draw, paint, and sculpt. I have been drawing since I can remember holding a pencil. I have always been drawing/creating art. For some reason art and the creative process has always been a part of me and I have never really questioned that I wanted to do something of significance with my talents.

I have been very blessed to have worked as a professional artist for a very good part of my life, one of my first jobs was airbrushing t-shirts at Six Flags Over Mid America when I was about 16 years old. I worked for a magnet company for a period of time, that was my first introduction to working with computers to make art. I worked for a company installing vinyl graphics on cars/trucks and semi trucks. And then I landed my first job that was a bit closer to what I currently do, I was a 3D artist making graphics with designers to produce large format graphics for tradeshow events. During this time I knew I wanted to work in the video games industry and had to stay after work hours to teach myself Autodesk Maya when it first came out. I finally landed my fist video game art job when I was in my mid 20ies. 

During my career in the games industry I had the opportunity to be part of Electronic Art's EAU (AE University) EAU was EA's internal training department and I was able to teach professionals how to use programs like Maya and ZBrush. Eventually funding for that department dried up and I returned to be a production artist, but the love of teaching never left me.

You see one of my most profound memories as a student was when I was in the first grade and my art teacher during that time encouraged me and told me I was a really good artist. It was the first time in a school setting that I could remember a teacher giving me praise for my abilities. Those teachers words still ring in my head to this day. 

So when I had the opportunity to make a career shift and lave the games industry for a teaching positions with UCF's FIEA program I jumped at the chance.

Now I am in a position to still make the type of art I love, I'm still tied to the games industry, but above all else I get to pour into other peoples lives and help them achieve their dreams and goals.

I doubt that teacher in the first grade knew the huge impact her worlds would have over my life, I like to think maybe she did and that is exactly why she was there in that moment. But I am now trying to do my best to live with that type of intentionality as an artist, instructor and a teacher. I'm trying to try and have that type of impact on the people that have been entrusted in my life.