Since the advent of the Collectible Card Game, (known as the CCG) in the early 1990s, I have been getting a lot of work in the various card games. I do a lot of other work too, but certain questions keep coming up. The big question people seem to ask is "Do I sign cards?" The answer is Yes! Actually, I am quite happy to sign a reasonable number of cards for your non-commercial personal use. My only request is that you send them with a SASE, and include enough postage to cover a few gallery card freebies and two sheets of paper telling what prints I have. You can check out the US Post Office website at: www.usps.com to learn how much postage to put on the envelope.If you live outside the US, please check the US Post office web site and be sure to buy enough Postal Coupons to equal the return postage. I am happy to sign cards as a favor to you, but please be polite and don't expect me to pay for doing the favor.
How about me? I have an education. I graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1984 with a BFA. Although I was a painting major, I knew at the time that I wanted to be a Science Fiction Illustrator so I took a lot of courses which would help me. I studied Archeology, Astronomy, and history on the side. I had also become involved in a medieval history group known as the Society for Creative Anachronism., also known as the SCA. It was there that my interest in more accurate medieval things began to flower. If you would like to see a picture, please link to: SCA Order Of Chivalry.
I also play guitar and write songs. I like music very much. Mostly old-fart stuff from the later sixties and the seventies. My favorite albums are Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Abraxas by Santana, and I love work by Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Jethro Tull, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and U2. I usually try to drag my guitar out to conventions, but often I'm too shy to play anywhere outside the room.
I also like SF media shows like Star Trek and especially Babylon 5. Despite the fact that I like real science inspiration in my entertainment (like the film CONTACT!!!), for some reason these shows appeal to my fantasy side. My favorite SF & F films these days are Blade Runner, What Dreams May Come and The Fifth Element, with the Star Wars set pretty high up there too. I have been a model building geek since I was a kid, and so of course I have a lot of model starships flying around the rec-room. Now, a dream come true, I actually got to paint the covers for them! Wow. I love this job!
The best thing is that
my career and hobbies overlap so much it is a blur to distinguish
between them. I consider myself very lucky that all I have had
to do was SF&F related art. I wouldn't even know the first
thing about making advertisement art. However, I have a children's
book and a Tarot deck on the way. But you'll have to wait to see
those. My favorite hobby is the SCA, our Medieval History club.
In the SCA we dress and socialize as a medieval society. Many
of us put on real armor and play a very active sport based on
medieval combat.
However, lets not confuse the SCA with medieval accuracy. It is a club which exists for people who want to enjoy exploring the romance and ideals of the middle ages, not necessarily the exact way things were. What I mean to say is we are very liberal in our expectations. For example, we recognize that new people (who are often students with little cash) do not always have the means to create perfect costumes any time soon. Instead of not letting them play, we make allowances and try to encourage them toward the goal of creating a more authentic ensemble. Some members just come to party with their friends -and that is cool, while others take delight in pushing the limits of in-depth research, and learning all they can about recreating the look of the middle ages. I fall into both categories.
In this club we do any activities which one might find between 600 and 1600 AD-within reason. We have events where we dress in medieval costume, and a great many of us play in medieval style tournaments. I love doing this. I have spent years building up a collection of authentic early fourteenth century style armor and learning to wear it in mock combat using weapons made from rattan. In the brief history of the SCA we have essentially been relearning the techniques of medieval foot combat using swords, shields, pole arms and spears. etc. In the illustration at top left you see me in the Red, white, and black swinging a pole axe. In the SCA I bear the rank of Knight and Baron. A knight is sort of our equivalent to an Asian style black belt. I also bear the station of a Master of the Order of the Laurel which is our arts equivalent to our knights.
What did I do to be recognized
as a Laurel? Well, for quite a few years I spent a lot of my spare
time learning all I could about how books were made and illustrated
in the middle ages. In fact, I have made my own pigments from
plants, minerals, and chemicals, made my own paint from egg whites
and the sap of certain trees. I have made brushes from quills,
sable hairs, and wood. I even know how to gild with 24 K gold
on sheep skin parchment as they did in the fourteenth century!
I might never have stumbled upon any of this without the SCA.
If you want to learn more about how I do this, I have written
a section of this website to teach how it is done. Click Here
to see it.
So, what does this do for
me as a painter? My experience as a medieval warrior means I know
first hand what it is like to be in armor fighting. We do it as
a sport, not a show. None of that cheap, fake, theater stuff.
We swing solid blows. This experience lets me bring to my art
better poses with a more believable concept. You won't see me
painting any of those stiff arm barbarians, and I hope my costumes
will be a little more convincing than we sometimes get. I am also
able to bring a lot of really charming little elements of true
medieval art into what I make. Several of my published works have
involved elements of medieval manuscript illumination. One of
the most notable is URZA'S MITER from the Antiquities set of MAGIC:
The Gathering. It is the only true medieval art, made with medieval
paint, in the whole game.
I'm a native of Ann Arbor Michigan, and
I still live here. My art education started at the church my family
went to and consisted of learning to glue paper plates together
to make flying saucers and my mom handing me a paper and pencil
during services in the vain effort to get me to be quiet. She
is the one who introduced me to paints, and 
after
reading a few books like Lester Del Ray's The Runaway Robot and
seeing the original Star Trek on TV I turned my brushes towards
space. Here's a sample of something I made when I was young, probably
eight or ten years old.
I spent more of my childhood building plastic model airplanes though. It was the one thing above all else that I truly loved doing. It was also where I learned how to paint. After all, those airplanes from WWII had to have pretty intricate camouflage! I got pretty good, but eventually being a teenager pushed that back a lot.
I wasn't only interested
in airplanes and reading science fiction. In cub scouts I learned
a little bit about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.
What a great and glorious way to be I thought. I had no idea that
someday that dream would come true. Here's a picture of me back
in 1970 in my first suit of armor at a cub scouts meeting. What
fun! A few years later I read the 9th century story of Beowulf,
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.
I painted a picture of the Hobbit's house and to this day there
is no way I'll part with the painting I did for Bag End in the
Middle Earth CCG. It always was a soft spot. By mid high school
I had chugged through all of the Conan books and had been caught
in the dungeons and dragons epidemic. This actually developed
a strong interest in ancient and medieval history that I had already
taken an affinity to because of my 8th grade history class.
Meanwhile I had become a soccer and track jock. It was my way of trying not to be a total outcast nerd. It took work to overcome my clumsiness, but I earned letters in both and our soccer team was always one of the top ranked in the state for all classes, despite being a tiny class D school with only American players. We were the Greenhills Gryphons, and we kicked butt in a major way!
When I graduated high school I decided I wanted to be in business for my self, and that my strengths were in the arts. So, with little real forethought I decided to go into the school of art and become an artist. I almost went for archeology, but I figured that the chances of making a living at THAT were ridiculous! My parents were somewhat nervous about my choice, telling me that I was smart enough to be anything I wanted -that would pay well. They started talking about medical school law school, etc. and telling me how smart I was. (In retrospect, I have to wonder where that confidence in my intelligence came from, since I think it was pretty clear from my choice that I must not have been all that bright!)
In my second year at college I discovered the concept of being a science fiction and fantasy artist, as well as the woman I would eventually marry. To be sure, without her heartfelt support, generosity, and understanding I never would have made it. Beyond my own hard work, I really do owe much of my success to Melody.
However, nothing lasts forever, and so it went with our marriage. She is no longer the same person, and neither am I. So once again I fall back on my heart, my art, and my vision to get me down the long river of life. The life of a modern day knight is more than a fairy tale, the ideals of chivalry live on as long as we hold them dear.
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