About
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
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I grew up in Lancaster County, PA. Living in the city as I do now, Lancaster's woods are what I miss the most. It was only a short drive to go hiking and camping. There was even a cave for some spelunking fun.
- New York City, New York
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After high school, I moved to New York City and continued my education at Pratt Institute. I had an outstanding drawing instructor at Pratt, who instilled a sense of respect for the history of art and the discipline of life drawing. Myself and some fellow students were inspired to form a drawing group. We met every night to take turns modeling for each other. This was an invaluable aid in fine tuning our perceptions and drawing skills. I graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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I moved to Philadelphia to pursue my graduate degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. After a brief excursion into non-figurative painting, my final body of work was composed primarily of portraits and figure studies. I graduated in 2000 with a Master of Fine Art.
During my final year in graduate school, I began working as a mural painter. From 1999 to 2006, I designed and painted twelve outdoor murals and two indoor murals ranging in size from a twenty foot by ten foot mural inside the gymnasium of a boy's club to an eighty foot by eighty foot wall of an apartment complex. The subject matter of the murals has been as diverse as the communities they've represented, from a memorial for a beloved community leader in the neighborhoods of North Philadelphia to the history of the Philadelphia trolley car in West Philadelphia to a tribute to the Italian-American heritage of Northeast Philadelphia.
While continuing to paint murals, I began making flash animations for a chemistry website, called the Wired Chemist. The animations needed to be interactive demonstrations of various scientific principles. In order to accomplish this, I needed to learn a scripting language called Actionscript. Scripting and programming languages had a structure and logic that I enjoyed. I became interested in learning other languages related to web design such as HTML, CSS and Javascript.
Since 2006, the challenge of creating clear, organized and visually appealing websites has become my primary focus. I have dedicated myself to the development of my web design portfolio and am eager to continue this pursuit.