I was born in Monmouth, Wales in 1971. Adopted at age six weeks I grew up the second of three children in a small village in Gloucestershire, England.
Fascinated by art as a young boy, it wasn’t until the divorce of my parents in 1979 that I began drawing primarily from imagination, an alternative to the usual playing of children’s toys. By the beginning of high school, with the encouragement of teachers and my mother, I decided to goal for becoming a commercial illustrator. After leaving high school, I gained employment in the art department of a local newspaper where I worked and continued my studies in graphic design.
In September 1991 I moved to Japan. I’ve always been fascinated by the culture and language of the far east. The intense and drastic change to my life also influenced my work in a dramatic way. As a commercial illustrator, I worked mainly with magazines and monthly published books, although I was also involved with educational illustration for children. During this time, I studied a great deal about other artists, illustrators and painters, motivating me to produce many works in many styles out of my normal range. However, in 1995 leaning back into my own now developed style of painting, I went on to win “Best New Illustrator” in the Tokyo Museum in Ueno‘s “Tokyo-ten” award with "The Valley of Rhyme."
In 1996, influences by Dali, Tanguy, Bellmer and many other painters, I began to move from illustration to surrealism. The exhibition that following year at the Tokyo Museum was greeted with mixed reviews because of the drastic change. As I continued my creative journey, I moved over fully to abstract by 1997.
In 1998 I produced over 200 pieces for the year. It also led to my style being altered again, which I labeled, “Abstract Automatism.”
In 1999 I moved to the United States leaning back on to my illustrator path, yet moving to another creative medium, namely the computer.
Practically falling into the profession, graphic design was to play an extremely large roll in my life for the next five years with paintings not being quite so mass produced. I went back and forth between all three of the four art mediums. Illustrations, surrealism, abstract art and now digital expression too. I also weighed in heavily into the digital documentation of current works to reach a wider audience.
Deep discussions, over analyzation, watching the movement of people, painting, being productive, walking my dog, being around people, being left alone! Realizations. Vermillion! City folk. (how do they keep spending as they do?!) Trying to figure things out. (Boy you caught me on a good morning for writing all these things!)
Bullies. Uncontrolled aggression. Pretty much violence of any kind. Betrayal. People that control other people. Watching people crippled by their addictions. Television. Celery! (Yuck)
American Beauty.
The green mile.
Babel
K-Pax
Into the wild
Movies that really stir you and alter you. Ones that make you numb when you come out of the theater like Castaway and Philedelphia did.... where you can't understand how something has touched you so deeply.
Plus pretty much anything that Thomas Newman has had his hand on. I LOVE that composer. Not into the 'fame' thing... but that is one man I've LOVE to meet.
