I Live On As A Biography

The first time I switched towns was in about '95. From Indiana I went to Phoenix and lived under my friend's bed in his dorm room. I was reading an old biography of VanGogh.. we need these legends to inspire us in our insane endeavors, otherwise, we'll all just be accountants.

That dorm room was so small that You could stand there, hands flat, palm both walls to your sides. It was the best of both worlds, I was living on campus of ASU, overlooking the pool, but didn’t have to go to any classes. I had started going to college for fine art in Fort Wayne, Indian Purdue Ft. Wayne. Only art class I got to was figure drawing, which was great but it seems the prereqs burnt me out. I had failed early art history and upon taking it again, I dropped out. It was my favorite class EVER but hard for me.

I dropped out because at that time, I had just a little bit of money and my plan was to blow it opening a shop airbrushing Tshirts in Florida. We went down there and found a location and everything. It happened to be a former shop of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the illustrator/cartoonist that launched a revolution of hot rod art that still thrives today. Ever heard of Robert Williams?

So yeah, at the time it was a choice between the high and ‘fine’ art or the low and juicey art, bikinis, hot rods. Hurricane insurance and my tender young age were enough to deter me in that endeavor. Instead, I ended up blowing my $2500 on a big TV and Sega and Natural Ice and who knows what else.

So, fast-forward, back to ’95, Phoenix, it was this same friend, my best friend Marcus, whom I had planned on hiring for my airbrush shop in Daytona. He was the only one crazy and inspired enough to do these things with me and he urged me to drop everything and come to Phoenix for a new life. I did.

I was engaged at the time and only stayed down in Phx for a few months, got to see what it was all about, found a school I thought more appropriate for my life and came back a year later with my new bride and enrollment papers. I’d be a graphic designer because no one was going to teach me to paint. As far as art history, I’d teach myself.

Since reading that book, at that time in my life, I knew how I was going to give back to the world; I knew what I wanted to be and that is: a biography.