"Summer Swim" Painting

Born in the "the valley" of Los Angeles county, to a large Italian/Croatian family, I started painting when I was about 7. Painting at that point actually meant crayola markers, and using those crayola markers to mostly just draw and create my own levels to Super Mario World. Growing up, my Godfather Leonard, who was an artist himself, would take me to the Getty Museum and I remember never really leaving the Impressionist wing. I loved the idea of how the artist's took what was real everyday life, and made it eternal, just by the way they were laying on the brush strokes. To this day, I paint to try and meld my everyday reality with my imagination. I guess, for me, its the implementation of our imagination that gives art a quality that might make it hang around for a long time.