I have had no formal artistic training. In fact, I seriously began drawing at the age of 8 years old. I have educated myself about art and drawing from books, museums and other artists. My earliest artistic inspirations came from the beautiful oil paintings on the walls of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel Church (located at 648 Jay Street in Utica, N.Y.), the Voyage of Life paintings by Thomas Cole at the Munson Williams Museum (located at 310 Genesee Street, Utica, N.Y.) and from various 19th century woodcuts and steel engravings by Gustav Dore.
My greatest artistic inspirations have been: Thomas Cole, Salvadore Dali, Gustav Dore, Andrew Wyeth, Albrecht Durer, Hieronymus Bosch and Raphael. During September of 1987, my work was featured in American Artist magazine. As you may notice, I use the ballpoint pen for much of my artwork. I have developed a technique of using the pen on the side of the ball at the head to create multi-levels of gray and shading tones in finely detailed and textured work. My favorite mediums to use are charcoal, technical pe and the Illustrator ballpoint pen.
