As a boy I liked to swim in the sea and sketch things I saw as I traveled the world with my family. As a teenager I was so excited when I saw an advertisement for an over-water villa in Bora Bora, Tahiti. The concept of a lifestyle living and painting in idyllic spots peppered around the world — symbolized by that image — dropped like a scuba tank into the folds of my psyche. This vision became my unconscious true north and somewhere in the back office of my being, the rest of my life began aligning in that direction. I would travel the world, experience exotic places, and create art and stories that reflected the intersection between land and sea, man and nature. But there was a small caveat — the cost for all of this would not deplete my bank account but would somehow be absorbed by the universe.
Graduating from college and seeking some adventure, I flew off alone to the Caribbean with minimum funds and no plan. I slept under catamarans on empty beaches and in the forest, eating coconuts and papaya. After a week of this nomadic existence, I found myself sitting under a palm tree sketching the seascape before me. At some point, an older man approached and asked to see what I was drawing in my sketchbook. Liking what he saw, he invited me to his simple hotel just up the beach for a beer. He told me that he had just opened this rudimentary hotel called Cathy’s Fancy — named after his wife — and he needed some artwork for his menus and collaterals. Would I be interested to exchange artwork for room and board? It wasn’t a hard decision to make. No more sandy beds on the beach feeding mosquitos and climbing papaya trees for breakfast. I accepted the offer not realizing that this would be my very first artist in residence — and the beginning of a lifestyle I was somehow destined for and have never tired of.