My first semi-professional illustration job came in the third grade when I traded a really lame monster drawing for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When I got a little older I realized I was pretty good at drawing so I went art school in Boston. During my second year I entered a contest for Molson Golden. I won. Naturally I assumed I would be paid in beer but instead was handed a check for $500.00 and a contract to do more artwork for them. Suddenly I was a professional.

After college I worked with several different companies, designing logos, doing paste up, conceptual art, storyboarding, working with licensed characters, and art direction. You name it I was doing it, but the one thing that kept shining through was my love for illustration... so I took a gamble, quit my job as an art director and went to work for a small toy company in Framingham Massachusetts where I could draw all the time. It was a great job but it ended almost as quickly as it Started. The company was forced to layoff half of it's art staff due to budget cut backs. I was one of the lucky ones. With no idea where else to find the type of work I truly loved, I decided to go into business for myself. At the ripe old age of 25 I became a freelance illustrator.

I took a year or two to learn the ropes and then found myself an agent. I'd always dreamed of becoming a children's book illustrator. Within 6 months I had my first title published and I was on my way. There are few thrills like seeing your art work on the shelf of your local book store and I was hooked. I spent the next 10 years working in licensed art. I was fortunate enough to work with many of the best; Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Warner Brothers just to name a few.  My artwork was being published all over the world and could been seen in books stores everywhere. 

After a while I started to get itchy. I wanted to draw my own characters. I began looking around for way to get my stuff out there. I found a small software company in town and they asked me to come join them, I accepted. I started by designing characters for kids games, pretty soon I was storyboarding again and next thing you know I was promoted to lead artist/ art director of the concept department. The company was acquired by Vivendi Universal and we grew quite large. A couple years later and Vivendi's CEO was in trouble, company stock plummeted and we were shut down.

I decided to go back to what I truly love. I found a new rep, sold my house and moved with my family down to North Carolina where I am freelancing today. Things have are going great. I have clients all over the world and am still just as thrilled to see my books on the shelves at my local bookstore.