The short version: After highschool, I graduated from Oklahoma State University, Okmulgee branch, where I later, taught art and was promoted to department head. I left there for a short stint in the Army at Fort Ord, California, and served 6 years in the 95th Basic Combat Training Division.
I moved to Oklahoma City in 1967 as a partner in a design studio and then as Senior Art Director for Lowe Runkle Company, an advertising agency. I flew all over the country to do portraits of people for the agency.
In 1975 I decided to move my family (2 baby girls and a wife) out to the wilds of New Mexico to pursue my dream of being a "real artist". That was a great 10 year ride! I built a beautiful home and studio on a mountain side where I painted and exhibited in Western Art shows all over the Southwest. Mary and I had a very successful art gallery, "The Bear Claw Gallery" in Ruidoso, New Mexico, which we fortunately sold just before the oil bust of 1983. We divorced in '84. (still single in '08.)
I moved to the middle of a 40 thousand acre ranch in West Texas, lived in the bunkhouse and cowboyed and painted cowboy pictures for about a year.
I took a one year teaching contract back at OSU in '85 and then opened my studio in Tulsa. Ooops...it burned to the ground in '88 so I wandered out to Pine Top, Arizona, and painted again.
A good artist-friend of mine had migrated to (of all places) Little Rock, AR, and convinced me to come reap the benefits of the free-lance illustration business. Another 6 years of my life there!
In 1996 I moved to Dallas for my current employment. I am a designer/illustrator for Tracy Locke Partnership, an advertising and promotions agency, and I work on the National Pepsi account. I have become completely computerized and work in the Macintosh platform. Photoshop and Illustrator are my software of choice. |
