Artist Biography

vanAnnies Chaos in Color

Computer Graphics and Bad Verse, Chandler AZ

Artist Biography

My history with artwork has been integrally intertwined with computer graphics, neither one ever truly separate from the other.

Computer Graphics

I had my first encounter with computer graphics in the mid 1980s when my dad bought an Epson QX-10 computer for his office work. It was monochrome and it had no hard drive, but through sheer curiosity and hours of dark experimentation, I was eventually able to make it draw geometric shapes and do sprite animation.

Fast forward to college, where I earned an M.C.S. In Computer Science with an emphasis on Computer Graphics, CAGD, and Image Processing. I had everything I needed to succeed in the computer graphics industry, except for a plan. Instead, I took a software engineering job at a local telephony company and quietly went about making a living.

Fast forward a little farther and you'll find me running my own consulting business, building websites and helping small business people and entrepreneurs with various computer needs. Ironically, these completely un-choreographed career choices somehow lead me right to where I had always wanted to be, right back to computer graphics.

I started manipulating images and photographs with Adobe Photoshop for work and also just for the fun of it. Eventually I moved on to digital painting with ProCreate Painter (now Corel Painter), and now I use it almost exclusively. Throw in a little JavaScript animation and I'm pretty much right back where I started - pursuing curiosity and having fun with math and pictures on the computer, except this time with the benefit of experience.

Art

I was never a serious artist in school. I drew pictures all the time, and sometimes got in trouble for it because I was supposed to be paying attention to class, but nobody would have mistaken me for a prodigy. My dad did encourage me to draw, although not during class of course. He is himself a talented artist, so maybe he hoped that with enough practice, perhaps that talent would rub off on me.

After seeing the results of my first college drawing class, my Grandmother Millie said to me, "I think you may have missed your calling.” Maybe that's just what grandmothers are supposed to say, but hearing it out loud reinforced my desire to be doing something more creative.

After starting work as a software engineer, I didn't draw much anymore but I did foray in to digital artwork with things like MS-Windows icons, logos, and a brief attempt at painting with Deluxe Paint under MS-DOS. I directed most of my creative energies towards user interface design, which is a mix of logic of art, and then later on into website design.

Working freelance has given me significantly more opportunity to pursue artwork, especially digital painting. I like programming, which is an artform of its own, but there's just something intrinsically more satisfying about creating a visual work of art. Most of my current work involves the natural, such as trees and animals, or the supernatural / mythical, like ghosts and angels, with an occasional attempt at humor. I'm still trying to find my niche, but I know that it will involve color, computers, cats, and a fair amount of chaos. Oh, and bears, definitely bears. (Take that, Stephen Colbert.)