A short biography

I was born in Aurora, Illinois in 1980 and grew up in a small house on what is now referred to as the “near” East Side--as opposed to the “far” East Side. This is important. Distinctions such as these are significant for me in that they create place, personality, and identity.

For the most part my childhood was uneventful. I attended a private school where I was one of the few people to come from what was notoriously known as “the East Side”. Most of the attendees were from other towns and/or better neighborhoods. I became a loner and even now I have never been able to successfully follow in step with the group. I am not introverted, but it was not uncommon for me to go days without speaking. Words were simply not suitable to my experience so I found no use for them.

Being practical, I went to college to study Criminal Justice, Computer Science, and Mathematics. I excelled in these fields and would have pursued a career in Criminal Justice had it not been for an internship within the field. After witnessing abuse after abuse, of both power and law, I decided that law enforcement was not for me. I graduated disillusioned and took to my real calling in art.

What followed were years of traveling, studying art, and living a beat life. In 2003 I enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in 2006 with a BFA. Shortly after I married and settled down in Plainfield, Illinois and that pretty much brings us up to date.

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