I was born in Newark in 1942 and have been a life-long resident of New Jersey. My father was a fine amateur artist and craftsman so I was encouraged to draw and make things from the earliest age. While very young I began writing and illustrating stories in imitation of the children’s books I loved so much.

The launch of Sputnik in the late fifties also launched a renewed emphasis on the sciences in this country and I was carried along with it. I entered Rutgers with a science-backed scholarship and the full intention of becoming a research scientist. The literature and writing courses woke me from this spell, and when I began studying drawing and painting with Frank Russell I knew I had found my center again. My respect for the sciences remains with me, however, and I try to keep myself informed. I consider myself a pretty decent amateur geologist and speleologist.

An early childhood trip to Howe Caverns spawned a continuing interest in caves. When the opportunity presented itself in the late sixties, I became an active caver. For many years I have been a member of the National Speleological Society. Most of my exploration work has taken place in West Virginia and I am very fond of the Mountain State and its people. In 1969, two caving buddies and I had that rare and inexpressible experience of discovering and exploring a large and beautiful virgin cave. My son, Ben, has continued that tradition by finding new passages in that same cave.

In the mid-sixties I began exhibiting paintings. That body of work, very different from my current pieces, more or less culminated with conceptual work in the mid-seventies. From then on, until about 1985, the pressures of raising a family coupled with serious doubts about the viability of painting itself kept me from showing any serious work. The Vietnam War had something to do with my stopping painting as well: my first solo show (at Kean University) had to be abruptly terminated due to campus riots caused by the Kent State shootings.

During the time I was not painting I worked as a designer and illustrator. The bulk of my illustration work has been in the comic book field. For nearly thirty years I have been associated with Marvel, DC, and Disney and have worked on everything from Spiderman to Superman to Donald Duck. I have enjoyed working alongside people whose creations were very important to me as a youngster.

But by 1985 I began to feel the need once again to express myself in paint. In an effort to communicate clearly I began painting in a meticulously representational way. I studied the work of the early Pre-Raphaelites and became charmed by their Ruskinian ideals. I also rediscovered the work of the great Canadian painter Alex Colville whom I had met in 1962.

Because my hand had never been out of practice the technical aspects of my new painting developed quickly, but it took more than a year’s work to find the voice to express what I needed to say. The technique is demanding and slow but I find the results rewarding. I paint what interests me so my subjects are varied. In my work I am searching for that moment when poetry overwhelms objectivity.