Growing up in the Pacific Northwest provided me the opportunity to spend a lot of time in forests, lakes and mountains. I grew up loving the outdoors. I cherished time spent there; much of it with my dad. The discipline and hard work learned were lessons that carried me through college on an athletic scholarship and an eventual bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. I planned on a career in prosthetics until I learned that required living a city life. So instead, my wife Jerrian and I decided to load up our pickup truck and drive north to Alaska where we’ve now lived and worked since 1983. I’ve been employed as a design engineer; at first working as an employee for a local company and the latest years as a private business owner. Our 3 children were born here in Alaska, are all married, and our 8 grandchildren are all being raised here.
Art, mostly drawing, has forever been part of life; often encouraged by my family. At 11, I began oil painting. I’ve now spent decades working at it, adjusting techniques and processes to improve my efforts on canvas and have finally found the way to get the results I’ve always imagined. No art school, no art degree, no art resume of any kind and now you get to be the judge. Hopefully you find something I do that interests you or best case, inspires you. My favorite subjects are animals, with their unique habits and instincts, which bring me closer to the outdoors I love and there’s no better environment on earth to inspire creativity and imagination than Alaska.
You often hear “follow your dreams”. I like “develop your talents”. Talents are too often taken for granted or even ignored. But talents are too beautiful and precious to waste. There’s no better gift for humanity than to share the beauty you create or perform so don’t wait to “feel like it”. With talent comes responsibility. The world needs all the beauty you can contribute. For so long I struggled with the “developing your talent” part. Some days I got the results I wanted and many other days I removed my day’s work from the canvas and started over. Those days are over and I’m into the “follow your dreams” part! I can’t wait to paint now and the experience is true joy and gratitude. The encouragement from my family is realized and when our grandkids visit they want to “see what I’m working on”. These are some of my biggest fans and motivators. It’s a dream come true and I’m excited with each new day and what it will reveal to me.
Finally, this story wouldn’t be complete without giving credit to Eliam and AnnMarie Henderson. On July 4, 2025, Jerrian and I “happened” to walk into AnnMarie’s studio in downtown Anchorage and met them for the first time. If it wasn’t for that day and what they’ve done since then to help me on this journey, my paintings would still be unseen, piling up at home collecting dust. They’re an amazing couple and we’re grateful to them both. Look up AnnMarie’s art; you’ll love it!