Occupation: Audio/Visual Artist
Where are you currently? Martha's Vineyard, MA
Formal education or self-taught?
I had a formal education in Fine Arts, traditional filmmaking & animation at The University of The Arts but am digitally self-taught.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
How’s that working out for you?
First, a commercial fisherman like my father. Second, a comic book illustrator. Third, a Hollywood blockbuster director. Fourth, an experimental filmmaker and animator. As far as how it's going for me… overall, it's a mixed-bag. I think that having chosen to work from a remote location has it's obvious difficulties. I feel I could always be doing better financially. But I work happily as a freelancer, making time for more personal projects that matter to me, and have a quality of life here on The Vineyard that I find much happier than in NYC or LA.
All-time favorite shoe?
Blundstone's on me. Any knee-highs on my wife.
Is work play?
60% of the time.
What was the first piece of music you owned?
Soundtrack to the movie "Breakin."
Favorite comic?
When I was younger it was a toss-up between "Ralph Snart" & "Batman" (or anything from Dark Horse Comics). An all-time favorite has been Art Spiegelmans's "Maus" series.
Last great book you read?
Conversing With Cage
What’s the best thing you’ve seen recently?
The short experimental film, "A Girl Named Kia," by Kai Ling Xue.
If you could have named yourself, what would your name be?
I wouldn't change my name.
Two truths, and a lie, please:
This is purely an empirical world.
Style is everything.
Your first impulse is often the purest.
If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Olive Green
Is perception truth?
No. But it's not always a lie either.
What was the last song stuck in your head?
"Show me the way to go home…" You know, that song Quint sings in Jaws?
Favorite punctuation mark, and why?
An ellipsis… because… well… it's how my mind works.
A haiku, please:
Vanilla caramel
Her delicate curve of neck
Subtle grin breaks sweat
If you were putting together a survey for a slew of artists,
what question would you be sure to ask?
"What's your next project?" (just kidding) I'd ask, "How much influence does your surrounding atmosphere have on your work?"
And your answer to that question?
A ton.
What website accompanies your morning coffee?
nytimes.com &/or mograph.net
Define importance:
That which is infused with a great sense of personal meaning &/or balance.
If you’d like, tell us a story about something wonderfully
bizarre that has happened to you, or someone you know:
I had just graduated college with a cut of my documentary "Strikers Passing" that I found personally unsatisfactory. I knew I wanted to spend at least another year editing but had now lost access to the 16mm flatbed editing tables at my school. I would have to either buy or rent one. Since I wanted to work at my own pace I was opting to buy. I was broke & living back at home, trying to save up some money in the summer as a landscaper.
Each day I would mow lawns, weed-whack, and fight back a bit of defeat. With the smell of grass and my own sun-burned flesh in my nose, I'd daydream of how to realize a finer cut of my film. There appeared no simple solution to my problem.
One day while brush cutting at an amazing seaside property, a man came jogging up the dirt road with a great big smile on his face. He approached me to speak, so I shut of my mower. He introduced himself as the current tenant and his warm demeanor put me at ease. We began to talk and I learned he had been forced to become a doctor by his parents, although he had always obsessed about art. He talked of how art for him was one of the highest states of mankind. He had always noodled as an experimental sculptor. He had just had his very first gallery show of his work the previous weekend and had sold two of his first pieces that very day! He invited me inside to look at his other works and we continued talking about art and where I was positioned at the time with my own project, the dilemma of needing a flatbed, and why I was mowing his lawn rather than editing. Eventually, as the clock rolled on, guilt got the better of me and I excused myself to "return to reality," and finish my work on his property before the day was over.
Back I went to my mower and a slight sense of the mundane. About fifteen minutes later he rushed out of his house waving an envelope. He handed it to me stating, "this is a gift from one artist to another." Surprised, I thanked him and stuffed it in my pocket without opening it. After another fifteen minutes of mowing, curiosity got the best of me. I opened the envelope and found inside a check that was the exact amount I needed to purchase my flatbed editing table! With joy, adrenalin pumping, and an overwhelming inability to accept such a gift, I shut off the mower and ran back to his house.
"I appreciate this so much," I blurted out. "But I can't accept this. It's simply too much!"
"Now just calm down," he said. "I don't want you to go freakin' out. It's just that when I heard how much you needed for getting back to your work… and realized it was exactly how much I had just made today from selling my very first sculptures, I knew what I was supposed to do. The money isn't an issue for me, it's the passion of those like you that is."
What’s your favorite font?
It's currently Caslon.
What did your parents want you to do with your life?
To be happy & loved (having a stable career ran close to second place)