Since then, I have always been interested in art, but it took a while for me to settle on the way I want to live it. I watched my older sister struggle through the educational system trying to understand her own artistic abilities and interests. I sampled art history, tried painting, worked with James Rourke at his gallery in Minnesota.

After my military service and all that entailed, I gave up on the whole educational infrastructure and started just producing art. I drew, sketched, painted, refinished “faux” furniture (new furniture that’s made in imitation of classic styles), painted home interiors, made candles with landscapes in them out of different colored waxes. Then I got into pottery, then some architecture and renovation of 1920s bungalows…