“Heart No. 1” Painting

I was born at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee shortly after midnight on July 4, 1952. I spent a rather idyllic childhood living in the country near Macon, Georgia where I started drawing at the age of about seven, got my first oil painting set at about ten and, sometime in-between, saw an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s engineering exploits. I was sold. I was going to be an artist. During high school, I attended a college preparatory boarding school with an extensive art program and was able to pursue my interest in art, including painting. From there I went to Oklahoma City University where I received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in art in 1974. I also met my soon-to-be wife of thirty-seven years, Cindy, and two years after graduating, we moved to Portland, Oregon. In 1979, I took a side trip to the University of Idaho where I was granted a teaching assistantship and, in 1981, received a Master of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in painting and printmaking. With the exception of four years, we have lived in Portland ever since where I have been an actively producing painter and teacher. In 1985, I began teaching Painting and Drawing in the Continuing Education program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and, in 1987, Basic Design and Drawing at Mt. Hood Community College. I continue to teach at MHCC. Altogether, I taught twenty years at the PNCA and have taught seventeen at Mt. Hood.