Since i was a child, i have always loved art and have always drawn or painted in one form or another.

I knew what i wanted to do the moment i graduated high school in 1981,and since then i have been employed in either the sign trade or at screenprinting shops.

i was an apprentice sign maker and  installer for over 5 years with experience in Illuminated,Sandblasted,Foam,Vinyl,Metal,Screenprinted,and just about any type of sign in the industry with the exception of "neon".

 

The natural progression of the sign trade led into screenprinting which i fell in love with,i could finally mass produce ideas and artwork!

When i was 19 years old i was employed as a screenprinter for a local company,for the next 10 years i learned the trade and more skills at other shops as well,i was the shop manager and head screenprinter for a local shop for 3 years printing expensive custom art designs from some of the top artists in southern california,all the while, still developing my artistic skills in the area.

In 1994 i decided it was time to try my hand running my own business at providing custom designed and specialized artwork for individuals,businesses, and for the various local screenprinting shops in the area.

In the beginning all the color separations(or plates) that were used were all done by hand using a special coated film called "rubylith",a light table and and X-Acto knives,this process was tedious to say the least and involvd many time consuming hours that sometimes never seemed to end.

Enter the era of the "Digital Age" and computers!

this was a completely alien world to me as my generation did not grow up with this type of technology being available to the general populace,so i was on the learning curve for about a year before i was semi-satisfied with the results graphics programs could provide.

Coreldraw was the main program i operated in and still do,but since then i have become familiar and adept with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop,which helped take my ideas to the next level where i wanted to be.

Today i am excited about the new and different ways to make more exciting designs come to life by means of these new  technological tools.

the one area i feel i have an advantage over many other artists is that i have years of hands on printing experience(over 10 years),i know what will work and what wont once its time to go to press,the way a job is set up will determine how much time the screenprinter has to waste getting it to work..many screenprinters i have worked with have remarked that they like my artwork because its easy to set up and print.

Today i still love doing graphics for the screenprinting industry and sign trade and am looking into getting into web-design and flash animation graphics more also.