I grew up in Nebraska, where my appreciation for wide open spaces and solitary objects reflected in my artwork was undoubtedly born. I was a young jock, memorizing statistics and playing every sport (except football, which my mother forbade). Even though I won an award in art in high school, I didn't take it seriously. Once in college, I intended on becoming an accountant or a lawyer, but once I took Creative Writing, I figured out that life would be a lot more interesting if I spent it in the arts.

For some time I tried to be a children's book writer and a poet. It wasn't until after college that photography began to take hold of my imagination. I crammed a darkroom underneath the stairway in my mother's basement and gradually began transforming into a photographer. Thanks to the tutelage of Barbara Hagan, I became passionate about the activity and it gradually took over my life. After teaching and coaching in high school for several years, I moved to Florida with the hopes of making a living with my camera. I worked at a photo lab, where I was part of the production of the Guiness Book of World Records' largest photograph. (It was somewhere around 10' tall and 120' long.) Up to this point I had been rather proud that I was essentially self-taught as an artist, but knowledge I had was getting me nowhere. It was time for my next move. Grad school.

I enrolled at Cranbrook Academy of Art to study under Carl Toth, a unique artist who specialized in philosophy and the transformation of what photography can be. Here I learned the practice of being an artist, and found new and original ways of expression. It was also here that I discovered the joys of color photography, both film and digital, as well as the joys of staging my own images. I also worked at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops for two summers, which developed my broad technical skill.

Once I graduated, I found possibilities galore in the Detroit area so I decided to stay. I have developed two educational programs for Cranbrook, the Cranbrook Summer Art Institute, which offers art classes to teenagers from all over the world, and Cranbrook Art for Educators, which provides professional workshops for teachers. I have also worked as an adjunct professor for up to five colleges at a time. Part of the allure of Detroit is the affordability and available space. Thus, I have also started a non-profit art group called Hatch: A Hamtramck Art Collective. We have purchased a former police station/ jail/ nunnery and are currently working to convert it into an art center.

I currently live in Hamtramck, an immigrant community within the loving arms of Detroit. There isn't a more diverse city in the US. I purchased a former crackhouse from the government and live in a neighborhood where Arabic and Polish are spoken as often as English. Still, it is a real community, where people walk to the market, chat on their porches, and watch out for one another. It is like living in a small town again but with the benefits of a big city.

My artwork is growing and developing all the time. I am hoping to create outdoor installations and turn "After Midnight" into a full book. Then again, I may go in a completely different direction.