Biography

I chose a career in art through the process of elimination. Traditional academics did not stimulate me. Team sports did not interest me. The only subjects that woke up my senses were art classes. Thus it would seem that the powers that be were telling me something.

Prior to my formal art education, I expressed myself in many mediums -- I made ceramics; designed graphics for sail boards; processed black and white film; sold art for the Christian Lassen gallery on Maui…

Finally, I settled on photography.

I entered the Art Center College of Design in 1992 with the intention of being a photographer. However, one class in Alias - which started out as a diversion from my regular studies - changed all that. With computers, I found that I basically had a photo studio-in-a-box. This photo studio-in-a-box allowed me to compose images in a way that was unthinkable with photography -- I was able to animate subject matter, build props, light objects, and best of all, delete elements without consequence! This artistic liberation brought out the latent filmmaker in me that I never knew I was! Greater still, computer graphics introduced a whole new paradigm for me in which to learn. Because I am able to re-contextualize the connections between art and other subject matters, I am a more avid student now than when I was in school.

"Mars Odyssey" was my first project out of Art Center. That was where I met Derry Frost, the then-owner of Simex Digital Studios. Derry recognized that my photography background gave me an advantage in painting photo-realistic textures. He recommended that I would best suit the industry as a texture painter. Valuing his professional opinion, I have been painting textures and backgrounds ever since.

At its worst, CG artwork looks too perfect. So what I like to do is to add imperfection to that perfection. Surfaces that are otherwise sterile and mathematical, are given noise, pollution, and randomness. The results look more pleasing in its manipulated state than in its untouched state.

In my personal artwork, I have been looking for ways to combine my artistic past with my technological present to develop a voice that is all my own. Lately, I have been infusing computer-generated imagery with old-world aesthetics, to create works that look as though they had neither originated from one era or the other. Printing these on fine watercolor papers give the works an added dimension of interest.

Overall, I like to think of myself as an old-world craftsman who imparts his digital work with the attention and detail of an earlier age - hence, the name of my website: Digital Craftsman. Since digital artwork is gaining wider acceptance than before at the fine art level, I plan to take my work in this direction in the near future.