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# About me

“Art isn’t always about who the artist is, but rather who catches his attention at that moment”.
- David J. Vanderpool 2012

THIS PAGE IS BEING SET UP A YEAR AFTER MY OLDER PAGE WAS DELETED. COMING BACK AT THE REQUEST OF A MODEL FRIEND, WHO KNOWS THE REASON BEHIND MY LAST EXPERIENCE HERE. WITHOUT GOING INTO DETAIL, LET'S JUST SAY THE FBI HAD TO GET INVOLVED.

I AM BACK TO NETWORK WITH OTHER ARTIST, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND MODELS, AS I EXPAND MY ART.

Drawing is one of the first skills children pick up and one of their first experiences in acceptance and recognition. Instantly the refrigerator door becomes their gallery – a place to show off their latest masterpiece as new pieces are added daily. It’s as if the refrigerator was created for just that purpose. As an adult, for those of us who continue to explore our creative side, the desire for acceptance and recognition never leaves us.

As a self-taught artist, my drawings have sold to collectors all over the world and found a home in places this artist has only dreamed of traveling to Amsterdam, London, Paris, Saint Petersburg, New York City, and Greece. And of course, closer to home in locations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and several homes and business throughout Kern County.

All of my drawings are created with fine lines and crosshatching for shading. I never blend with a blending stump or smear the graphite unless it’s a distant background which is meant to be blurry. For me personally, I find that blending stumps flatten and dulls the drawing and destroys any chance of making the drawing “come to life, jump off the page”.

So what do I used to blend my drawings? Lighter pencils (2h, 4H and perhaps and F) over the darker graphite pencils! Darker pencils are your softer graphites and therefore touch just the surface of the paper. By applying the lighter, harder graphite over the darker shades of grays, the artist has more control of the blending, and the darker graphite can be pressed deeper into the fabric of the paper. Often giving a deeper, richer shadow. And cleaners, more detailed blending!

Being right-handed, I draw left to right, top to bottom, which often means many of my drawings are created upside down in order for the graphite not to smear.

I am not only am I an artist that thinks outside of the box, I created that blasted box!

Although artists are often free thinkers, never going with the established 'norm' it does not mean they all fit together into one category. In fact, if you judge people based on how you feel they should be living their lives, and that judgment is based on hate and prejudices, then it is you who are missing out on opportunities of meeting a potential friend. Expanding your knowledge and experiences. And therefore, you miss the simple pleasures of life!

So, if my personality, humor, artwork, faith, political views, and choices differ from yours, and you are offended then, by all means, move on. Life is too short to count those who dislike me. (Besides, I am pretty sure I can't count that high.)

If you are offended because of someone else's choices and lifestyle - it is you that needs to grow up and face the facts that people are different from one another. And that is what makes this world worth saving.

In closing: If you base your friendships and acquaintances on who you are, then you are a fool! If you deny others from the freedom to live their lives, then it is you who is the bigot, racist, and intolerant of those who choose to live different than yours, then you are bigger than just a fool.

I am a Christian man, whose political views are guided by my personal beliefs and the current situations in MY life - not a political party. I am a Christian man whose faith is direct by Jesus Christ, as my Lord and personal Savior. Not by Man or Church.

I am an artist who creates because of a Gift that was given to me by God, as a child, in order to survive a world of neglect and indifference. An artist who continues to create, in order to share and reach out to others. Not because it is to become rich or famous.

To judge me because you thought you knew me, then you never really knew me at all.

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