I traversed the North American continent four times before I was twelve as an Air Force brat; as a child we usually relocated by car. I drank in that rich exposure as a reservoir of events I unknowingly stored for further use. Vignettes of those travels often surface in my narrative. I have drawn from those anecdotes out of a lifetime accumulation. My imagination was stimulated by places, incidents, music, overheard conversations, regional culture, but more than anything, people.Besides travel I was influenced by family upheaval, politics, the quiet of farm life, the excitement of the city, even the mundane of suburban living. I was an Air Force medic during the Viet Nam years. I married, raised two daughters, and family is central to my life. Amongst college, hammering out a living in one business or another, I was enamored with art from my youth and still consider myself a serious artist - being an artist is a vocation one can never retire from. Writing is somewhat of an encore career ... I may not have communicated my experiences in oils but I hope they have found a finer voice in the written word. It is my desire to paint portraits of people in story form that I haven't quite captured in paint. There is a rich life experience than transcends death, struggle, achievement, love, and the complex interaction between people ... that is what I want to write about.