A Little More About Me

Since you made it to this page I guess you would like to know a little more about me, OK here you go. I was born in Staten Island, NY, in shall we just say the early 1970’s. From a very early age I had an affinity for art and all things artistic. I was always drawing or doodling some sort of superhero or Star Wars character all during my childhood. I had a love for comics and cartoons that soon developed into a passion for film and motion pictures. I knew by junior high that I wanted to work in “the movies”. Now most kids who say that want to be actors, but I wanted to make the movies. I was fascinated by special effects. I watched every “making of” video or TV show I could get my hands on. As I entered high school I started leaning towards animation and the possibility of choosing that career, but as we can all see, I didn’t go that route.

Let’s jump ahead a few years as I took a few years after high school to blow off some steam and such. In 1995 I enrolled into the Industrial Design program at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. It was there that I learned I could sculpt. Sure I had clay as a child but I had never really sat down and tried to create something out of it before. I had found that I love to sculpt. It was that love of sculpting that forged my early career. After graduating, (on the deans list might I add) while many headed west, I headed east back to my hometown of NYC. Within a few months there I landed my first show, and not just landed it, I was Key Hair and Make up for the film. A few more smaller shows followed but I was quickly finding out that I had bills to pay and needed to find other ways to supplement my income.

There was dwindling work in NYC at the time for a non union FX artist so I needed to find something to fall back on. With the help of a few friends I started to teach myself the basics of Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe software of the time. I took a position as an apprentice graphic designer at a firm in NYC and learned alot about the business, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. Then I got a lucky break, a local toy sculpting company was looking for artists. I got the job and was soon sculpting all sorts of collectibles, from action figures to mini busts and statues. That all ended on Sept. 11, 2001. The company I worked for had to postpone work as our clients halted production of everything. I was laid off the next day. I returned to the graphic design world by taking a position in the marketing department of a Native American Casino in Upstate NY. Fast forward a few years and I was now a senior designer and doing well. But the cold of upstate NY winters were getting to me, I needed a change of environment.

I was soon living in the warm climate of central Florida, home to a few theme parks. I had a few small graphic and illustration positions at first, then I was hired by a scenic shop. I was assigned to the carpentry shop at first where I was building props and such for all the theme parks and television commercials. It wasn’t long before I was given the opportunity to sculpt some pieces for a project. I must have done something right because by 3 years later I was the lead sculptor for the shop. In 2010, I submitted a drawing for a contest to design the next starship Enterprise held by CBS and the online game Star Trek Online. In May 2011 I was awarded the grand prize. My design was used as the basis for the final in game design. A quick  jump ahead to January of 2012, the birth of twins, my son and daughter and my decision to move north once again to be near family and begin working as a contract and freelance artist. As a freelancer I have been doing concept designs and illustrations for various clients and most recently have had the opportunity to design some graphics for the band, The Original P Funk .