I've always loved to draw.

When I was a kid I spent hours drawing and coloring, experimenting with lettering styles and drawing cartoon characters and space ships. Doodling in the margins of every notebook I ever owned.

Eventually, I was the one who was asked to make posters for the school plays and dances. I always knew I would end up doing it for a living. I just had no idea what that meant and no "role model" in the art world.

I was too much of a social butterfly to visualize myself holed up in a garret somewhere, painting and living like a hermit. I was inspired by the advertising imagery in the streets, magazines and on TV. I loved the elegant austerity of Picasso's line drawings and the dreamy surrealism of Dali. I poured over the intricate details on album covers by bands I liked and discovered the psychedelic styles of the San Francisco poster artists of the 1960s. Rick Griffin, Alton Kelly and Stanley Mouse, Wes Wilson, and Victor Moscoso. Collectively known as the "Big Five," they were doing what I dreamed of doing. Concert posters with striking, colorful drawings, collages, lettering styles so distorted and extreme you could barely read the words. And that was the point!

More coming soon...