A piece of paper and a pencil.

Being a creative person runs in my family. My Grandmother used to paint, my Uncle used to do graphics and photography, and my Dad can paint, draw, sculpt, etc. When I was younger I was always one of the better students in the art classes. My mother tells me that when I was only four years old, I made a huge mess with all of my toys. My Mom grounded me by taking away all of my toys and gave me only a piece of paper and a pencil to play with; I drew musical notes. Everyone in my family was amazed. In 2nd grade I was the only kid to remember to draw a neck and ears on my self-portrait. But, if you had seen my honors art paintings as a senior in high school, you would never have thought that I would pursue a career in art.

My undergraduate degree in is graphic design from Grace College in Indiana. Although my degree was in Graphic Design, I mostly developed my skills in oil painting. Since then, it has become my favorite medium to work with. This was my first oil painting in college:

Our assignment was to find images in black and white that we would like to paint monotone. I went out with my camera and shot a few pictures of what was around me in black and white film. The railroad was right by my school and was my favorite picture that I took.

The rocks in this painting took me forever! I believe the bottom right corner took me about ten hours... This is when I learned how to look really, really closely at the color and it's shades within a form.