My earliest memory of art was in 1982 at the age of 6, when I went to the Louvre in Paris ito see the Mona Lisa (before it was behind glass!). Somebody mentioned that if you walked past the painting, her eyes would follow you. This to me was a source of some wonder that I still recall.

After dabbling a bit in art during high school in Colorado, I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where I studied Film. Avant-garde film maker Stan Brakhage taught there, and I was lucky enough to take a couple of classes with him. Besides being an unqualifiable genius, he was my first interaction with an artist of such serious depth. The world of non-narrative film really opened my eyes to the possibilities of art, and while at CU, I completed the short 16mm film "One hundred eight minutes off the surface of the earth I was dreaming." During this time, I was chosen to be part of a student symposium at the Telluride Film festival, which was an incredible experience.

When I left Boulder and eventually settled in Denver, I began to create in many different directions--painting, sculpture, and lutherie (I built an acoustic guitar). This was a fun time, really experimental and playful. I remember thinking at the time that I couldn't understand how artists could limit themselves to one style. It seemed so boring.

I left Denver for Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2001. On the way there, with my car packed with all my belongings, I stopped at the Burningman festival in Nevada. This was quite a surprise, and completely blew apart everything I thought I knew about art. Inspired and motivated. I arrived in Portland on September 11 and soon began creating in earnest. Inspired by the wet, cold Portland winter, I made my first burnt-cloth piece and fell in love. I finally understood how it happens--it is a fascination with process, an obsession; a passion.

While in Portland, I produced a large amount of work and had a few small shows. I worked with Gary Rogowski at the Northwest Woodworking Studio (a woodworking school), learning an entirely new set of values about precision and craft. Attending Burningman again, I helped on an installation called the "Aural Reef," an interactive music/art spaceship that had crash landed in the desert. The following year, I put up my own installation, the "Lahontan wagon," my car wrapped in burnt cloth.

When I'm not burning fabric, I like to play music on my guitar or banjo, backpack, rock-climb, and write poems. I recently attended the Crestone Healing Arts Center in Cresone, CO, where I studied massage therapy.