I had a lot of fun drawing when I was a kid, and no one told me to stop...so I didn't. Then my parents began hanging my drawings up around the house and gave visitors to our house tours of my artwork. What else could I have done but become an artist?

My friends were a little perplexed about it. “Illustrator? Hmm…is that like an artist?” Well great! That's a nice hobby.

After several years of filling my walls with sketches of cars, airplanes, and an occasional portrait of Megan my dog, I decided to enroll into the American Academy of Art in Chicago where I met others with sketches all over their walls too. Not such a small world as I had first thought.

After graduating from the American Academy of Art, I landed my first big job as an illustrator, drawing car mufflers for a large Chicago agency. But I knew there was more out there and decided to relocate to Tucson, Arizona and go freelance.

Then a lot of years went by while I worked.

And now with my beautiful wife, two children, three fish, and a rather healthy potted ficus tree, I am living my dream of being an illustrator where my walls are now filled with my own kids' sketches of cars, airplanes, and an occasional portrait of Mom or Dad.

Not quite 1,000 words but that's basically it.