It was the summer of 2004. I was bored at work. I brought in some painting materials with the intention of creating something decorative for my office. I picked up a pen and started drawing a tree. I found myself unable to stop. I was at work. I'm sure the phone was ringing and people were wanting things from me but I was on a roll. What you're seeing here at the left is the first attempt. It's called "The Tree of Life".

I was suprised and somewhat amused that I could make a tree come to life on canvas board.

So I tried another one.

This one is called "Sisters" and it was an exercise in line and color. I like the way they are conjoined by energetic reds.

I found myself painting furiously at all hours of the day and night. I couldn't stop. It was an outlet that helped me "deal" with my crazy life. I had gone to theater school and been an actor up until I moved to Seattle. I had mostly let the theater world go...and hence, with that, a creative outlet to make me feel alive.

And now I was painting up a storm.

So I tried my hand at subject matter in the abstract.

Here we have "Bottles".

I was pleased with this one but knew I had to get back to what I crave...connection with the natural world...in particular...trees and ocean landscape.

With that...I whipped out the following work:

This piece at left is one of my proudest moments as a new artist. It is called, "Three Trees" and it depicts a scene

from an amazing backpacking trip I took into the Carmanah Valley on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I have some very vivid memories of my hikes in that wonderful area. The colors are like no other. The trees are the biggest old growth I've ever experienced.

With "Three Trees", I feel I turned a corner creatively. I knew I was onto something really significant for me as an artist. Over the next year, I found myself aiming for participation in my first artwalk.