My desire to confirm reality through drawing began as a boy growing up in the country near the then small town of Clinton, Mississippi. Essentially that meant drawing pictures of my horse. After my family moved to Tupelo, Mississippi when I was sixteen, I began to draw and paint with a friend, Ke Francis, on weekends.

At Southwestern at Memphis, now Rhodes College, I studied art with Lawrence Anthony. His guidance made me think a life as an artist was possible. I dropped out of college for a semester at the age of nineteen and took a freighter to Europe. After visiting many museums in several countries I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be an artist. When I returned to Memphis I began to study art in depth at the Memphis College of Art.

After graduation in 1968, I eventually found work as a free-lance scenic artist in Boston. I worked primarily with the scenic department at WGBH, a PBS affiliate. My work included building, painting and, occasionally, designing sets for television and film productions. This work had a profound effect on my art. Even today I utilize many of the skills I learned during that period. In 1976 I moved to Seattle. The first few years there I, along with a partner, ran a book store. I developed a small gallery within the store and exhibited both vintage and contemporary photographs. During that period I became steeped in the history of photography. My art has always been made from my own photographs. This additional knowledge of photography has proved invaluable. My fondness for books remains intact and I now make artist’s books directly connected to my painting series.

By chance and design, about 1990, I developed a method of painting directly onto grids of photographs. This is my primary way of working today. Traveling to other countries or within the United States, mainly in the South and especially Mississippi, I take photographs which become both the primary source of my paintings and the subtext upon which the paintings are made. After spending most of my career in Seattle I now live and work in Holly Springs, Mississippi.