Made By Hand. By ME.

Born in a Mississippi River town, I was raised on the edge of a farming community, made drawings, had a dog (my best friend) named Murphy, and extensively debated the nature of most everything with my older sister. Attending Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, I discovered sculpture, printmaking, and Photography, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998. There, I produced the two-person exhibition Address Context showcasing a collection of artists books.

Lured by the “Big City”, I moved south on the Mississippi in 1998 to attend graduate school at Memphis College of Art, where I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree. In 2000 I exhibited Anodyne at the Memphis Art Center featuring photographic images shot with a modified Epson flatbed scanner and a 1000watt flood lamp printed on watercolor paper. In 2001, I adopted a wayward Basset Hound and named him Tony.

From there, I traveled north on the Mississippi to become Assistant Director of Xen Gallery in Saint Louis, Missouri. Etching a studio out of a 19th century Saint Louis basement, I began a career as a studio artist. In 2005, I produced the solo exhibit the Arcana, consisting of 24 paintings on wood. The Arcana was followed in 2007 with my next solo exhibit Tzolk’in, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures on wood.

Presently, I share a home and studio with my fiancée Mary Cheragotti, where I am working on paintings from the series Ragnarok. The culmination of this series will be exhibited as The Ragnarok Project in May 2009 at Wild Flower. Through March 2009, my work is featured in a solo exhibition at Mississippi Mud House under the title The Mythos Project.

My work can be seen at The Grove Furnishings and Mississippi Mud House in Saint Louis, MO, The Jacoby Art Center in Alton, IL, Kaskaskia College in Centralia, IL, Memphis College of Art in Memphis, TN, and the recently defunct Xen Gallery in Saint Louis, MO. My paintings and sculptures are in private collections in Taipei, Taiwan, Washington D.C., Detroit, MI, Indianapolis, IN, Minneapolis, MN and New York, NY.