I served as the Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the University of New Mexico – Valencia Campus in Los Lunas New Mexico for twelve years.  I retired from the college level teaching field at the end of May 2008 to pursue my personal artistic and aesthetic growth as a multi and mixed-media artist.  I am presently working with various types of paint, colored pencil, ink, wood and stone carving, jewelry, ceramic ware and ceramic sculpture.  I am also planning on taking art studio classes beginning the fall 2008 semester.

Background:
I was born in San Diego California on August 29, 1945 and was raised in Ocean Beach and Solana Beach in northern San Diego County California until leaving High School in 1964.  I served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1967 and was stationed in Fort Ord California, Fort Knox Kentucky and Schweinfort Germany.  After the military I earned my GED from San Diego High School and attended one semester of college at San Diego City College in 1970.  In 1979 I earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture and in 1982 a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, Utah.

From 1979 to present I have taught classes in Studio Art and Art History (among other fields of study) for various educational institutions, such as, The Salt Lake Art Center, the University of Utah (as a graduate student), New Mexico State University – San Juan Campus and the University of New Mexico – Valencia Campus.  The classes I have taught include the subjects of Drawing, Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, Education, Sociology, General Honors and Physical Education.  Besides teaching I was instrumental in building art programs from a smattering of classes to the developing of a course curriculum, obtaining and implementing equipment and tools and hiring the faculty necessary to create a Fine Arts Department at two branch campuses.   I have been honored to receive scholarships and awards during my education and teaching career, such as, the Florence Ware Scholarship and recognized eight times for Teacher of the Year and Teaching Excellence awards.  I have been featured in innumerable newspaper articles and several publications.  Many of my two-dimensional and three-dimensional art works have been exhibited in well over 75 art shows throughout the years and some are included in institutional and private collections in various countries.

My Art Works:
For many years I have been fascinated with and have studied the world-wide primal expressions of Mankind.  Especially those expressions and creative works which attempt to describe the spiritual aspect of the human experience.  Through textual investigations as well as travel to various countries in the Near East, Europe, Central America and North America I have familiarized myself with the spiritual and artistic expressions from tribal cultures and early civilizations.  Generally speaking, my art works are an attempt to combine various culture’s visual forms into a more universal but simple spiritual expression.  I have been primarily involved in sculptural forms in a variety of materials however my more recent works include multi and mixed-media drawings, sculptural wall pieces and some free-standing sculptures.