After escaping my hometown, the hilly little civil war town of Vicksburg, Mississippi, I got a BFA in Metalsmithing and Painting from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. It was there I realized that I could basically do whatever the hell I wanted, from hopping freight trains to smiting enemies that dared to cross me. With this new attitude towards the world, I hopped some trains, smited some enemies and picked up an MFA with a focus on Metalsmithing from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. I taught metalsmithing for the 3 years while attending KU.
In 2003, the dirty South got her talons back into me. I settled 230 miles downriver from my hometown, Vicksburg, in New Orleans, and worked at Loyola University teaching basic design for 1 1/2 years. Hurricane Katrina hit in the late Summer of 2005. My life was permanently altered from the storm’s impact. Ultimately, I re-tooled my approach to the day-to-day, rebuilt my house/studio and, became a New Orleans Firefighter/EMT. Although I’ve maintained a studio practice for 20 years, the work shown on this site mostly displays the functional work I’ve created for about 9 years. I maintain a fascination with technology and its impact on ecology and culture.
90% of materials used in the works displayed on this site were collected from the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina.
After 15+ years in New Orleans, 10 of which were spent recovering from “the storm”, my wife, Jeanne, and I decided we’ve had enough. Continuously tackling the challenges and frustrations of life in the post-diluvial crescent city, like having our dog eaten by an alligator, had taken its toll. In the Fall of 2018 we transplanted to Albuquerque, New Mexico.