Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, I moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to study architecture at the University of Southern California.  There I received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture.  It was during my studies that I began to appreciate the importance of observing and drawing the built environment.  I believe that an important part of an architect’s role is to interpret and portray the world around us.  Architects have a unique way of looking at the world.  They see beauty in unexpected places that others might overlook.  In this way I see my pursuits as an architect and as an artist as one.  I feel that I have a unique perspective on the world that I feel is important to share.  I hope that I can help people to see and appreciate their everyday world in a different way: to find unexpected beauty in the everyday.

Since childhood I have had a fascination with Japan.  As a young architecture student I marveled at the wonders of traditional Japanese homes and gardens.  But it was not until my first visit in 1995 that I really fell in love with modern Japan.  I found the dense, chaotic nature of Japanese cities to be pure magic.  This fascination eventually drew me here to live. The streets, the gateways, the tangled web of power lines, the compositions of bicycles, potted plants, gas meters, signs and fluttering laundry all become one enchanting continuum.  The ancient next to the new, the sacred along with the profane; this is the Japan I want to portray.

Along with my fascination for Japan came a curiosity about Japanese woodblock prints.  The further I delved into the subject, the more I became engrossed.  In the spring of 2004, this fascination led me to Kyoto to commit myself to learn this demanding craft.  It is my hope to follow in the footsteps of the great Ukiyo-e masters in portraying the everyday life of Japan in woodblock prints.
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