I was born and raised between the cornfields and steel mills that dotted the northern Indiana landscape.
The steel mills are gone.
The corn remains.
I have lived in Manhattan, Massachusetts, and Manchuria. And now, for almost forty years, I have made the San Francisco Bay Area my home.
As far back as I can remember I loved astronomy. I read every book I could find on the subject in the local Carnegie Public Library. As a child, I used to lie in the grassy field next to my house and gaze at the stars and wonder: How did the Universe begin and how will it end? And sometimes, just sometimes, I also wondered if there was another little boy like me up there lying in his own grassy field looking up at his stars and wondering the same things.
Photography is my passion. I picked up my first camera when I was nine years old. I setup my first black & white darkroom when I was fourteen and developed my first color slides and prints when I was fifteen. Initially I didn’t view photography as “art.” It was simply a way of documenting the world I saw around me. Eventually I became interested in the beauty and designs in nature – from the geometric patterns one finds in everything from flowers and sea shells to the lines and curves of the human body. I started photographing flowers, and later, people: traditional form and figure photography as well as nude portraiture. I have worked in these two genre for more than fifty years.
In college, after completing the required classes for my major I filled my schedule with photography classes in the art department during the day and classes at a local photography school at night.
Sallust, the roman historian, said that no mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests. My passions were astronomy and photography. However, I thought it would be difficult to make a living at either. So instead of pursuing my passions, the course I eventually charted through life was more practical. However my passions never diminished, especially for photography. I have had a camera attached to my right hand for more than half a century.
In August of 2008 I started a job at a company that had been in business for ten years. Two and a half months later they went out of business – a result of the Global Financial Crisis. I pursued my best economic interests for most of my life, but instead continuing in my chosen career I decided it was time to pursue my passions.
As one trained in the physical and social sciences much of “Art” was terra incognita so I started studying art at community colleges. My goal was to make my photography less “documentary” and more “artistic” and visually interesting. Along the way, I developed an interest in traditional printmaking, particularly etching and lithography. I also discovered the joy of drawing with pastels. I received my Associate of Arts degree in Fine Arts (Printmaking) in 2016.
Almost as long as I have been gazing at the stars I’ve been writing. I started writing poetry when I was in the third grade and haven’t stopped. I kept a journal throughout high school, college and beyond. It was only when the pressures of the “real world” left little time for writing that I stopped journal writing. I then turned to writing short stories and memoir.
Although not young in years, I am a “young artist.” One day, when reviewing my work, my painting instructor said, “You have a ‘Beginner’s Mind.’” This is a Zen Buddhism concept describing someone who approaches a subject with no preconceived ideas and with an eagerness to learn. Indeed, I have a “Beginner’s Mind” and I am exploring the world of art, particularly drawing, printmaking, photography, pastels and creative writing, with an eye to developing my own “artistic vision.”
Perhaps Sallust was correct: no mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests. Nevertheless, I have decided to pursue my passions. I don’t know where these pursuits will lead, but so far the journey has been fun.
