bio

"Shall I begin like David Copperfield? 'I am born, I grew up...'"-- Louis, Interview with a Vampire, Anne Rice

Childhood in suburban Atlanta was, well, like suburbia anywhere, I guess, but for a kid who is somewhat a loner with an active imagination, rainy days drawing and painting were far more engaging than the same re-runs on afternoon television. When I was very young, before I could read text on my own, my mother gave me big picture books full of colorful illustrations, and I began to copy from those. I was in high school before deciding to make art a full-time interest.

"Do you know cupids are pagan?"-- Ghost, Wormwood, Poppy Z. Brite

Classical painting has always been a favorite of mine, even though most of my college profs favored "modern" approaches. I left fine art school for an Associate's Degree in Graphic Design, and worked for the most part in printing and publishing for several years, then while living in Florida I returned to university and completed a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art.

"Photograph what you love"--Sally Mann, What Remains

I began photographing my doll collection--noticing how lifelike even the vinyl dolls were. Each doll has his/her own personality, even though their faces and bodies are "cookie-cutter", factory made. Every photo tells a story about each doll; some of the dolls were bought second-hand, and their past seems to twinkle in thier hard plastic eyes. It is they who have adopted me. I am the original owner of most of the dolls, and maybe its my past that is being photographed here. Who knows? The custom -made artists dolls gleem with the personalities of the artists who made them, as well as the spirits that inhabit their inanimate bodies, twisting them and shaping them, till over time, as with people, even they do not resemble their newly-birthed forms. Enigmatic and engaging, the dolls tell both their stories and mine.