twin passions

My involvement in both sports and art began at an early age. I started playing in water at the age of three and took some of my first strokes at the White House pool in Washington D.C. At six, while living in Paris, I began painting lessons.

Starry-eyed and with the notion of becoming the next 'Perry Mason', I enrolled as a pre-law student in 1975. Pre-law lasted for all of one year. But it was my first exposure to figure-drawing classes and the first time naked people would hold still so I could draw them. When our model disrobed, revealing white zebra stripes painted on her body, I knew I was in the right place. I think that was the beginning of my life as a committed artist. Not because of the stripes, but because I found that I could really feel the human form as I drew. I completed that figure drawing class in which I had to produce 500 drawings in six months. That was a lot of drawing. To this day, I never turn down the opportunity to draw women who agree to hold still.

At the University of California, I completed a degree in Communications Studies with a minor in Fine Art. During my college days I studied a wide range of art forms from etching and abstract painting to stained glass, cartoon animation and photography. Later, through the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, I completed a Master in Fine in painting.

Upon moving to California, I became involved in competitive sports for folks with disabilities. Competitive sports gave me the first opportunity to test myself against other people with similar physical scenarios. That was over two decades ago. Since then, I've competed across the globe in numerous international events and am still flogging myself into competitions.

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