In the summer of 1974, I joined the Navy. I was eighteen, and about to set sail for the middle east. I chipped a lot (and I mean a lot) of paint on that ship. But before my naval painting career had even started, it was over, and I returned to civilian life. The thought of making a career out of the Navy never once entered my mind. I wanted a "normal civilian life." I believed everything would be just fine, as long as I had a job. I was willing to settle for just about anything, as long as it was not chippin and paintin the deck. As I set sail (literally) on the first few years of my adult life, I returned to port "leaving behind" all the experience I had acquired. Or so I thought.

As a civilian I qualified for jobs in and around boats. But thankfully home was nowhere near the ocean. So I took a job driving an old truck My long awaited career had commenced. Yet as the years passed, I found myself going from job to job, until one day, I got so tired of all that job hoppin' that I decided to start my own business in (guess what) - painting. My search for a career had now ended. Or so I thought.

It took a few years before I discovered that what I was, was what I was, which was little different than what I had always been. I painted houses, cars, trucks, boats (wow, big surprise), drilling rigs, planes, signs, and ultimately art. As I sat on the deck of that ship chipping and painting oceans of red lead primer and battleship grey and dreaming about what I was going to do when my enlistment ran out, my career was being developed without my knowing it.

Never once did I consider becoming a naval artist, you know, the kind of artist who does paintings of clipper ships on rough seas, or any other kind of artist for that matter. I did not want to be limited, or "narrow" my talents. I wanted to be able to draw or paint just about anything, whatever I saw, and for that I had to navigate the waters of diversity. I wanted to corner every market, visit every seaport. It took a few more years before it suddenly occurred to me that I was cruising in unchartered waters. My career was being shaped by conditions like the market and the consumer. My career wasn't going to be in painting boats, or planes, or ships, or any thing like that. My brush was set for making broad strokes, as long as it wasn't dipped in gray. (Call me for your next painting, as long as it's not one of ships, or the ocean).