It began innocently enough by tracing cartoons from the Sunday paper. That practice turned to freehand drawing and sketching from my imagination. I would draw cars and motorcycles and silly characters from my head. I was amazed by a magazine called ‘CARtoons’ because it showed me that there were people making living doodling cartoons. I was seven or eight, but I had goal of getting my sketches in that magazine.

               As a family, we were always around cars and race cars. My dad helped a couple of his High School friends build and fix their race cars and I cannot remember a Wednesday night or Saturday afternoon that we were not at a racetrack. It was Awesome! We even attended nationally televised races at Road America here in Wisconsin. Mom even traveled to tracks with Dad, my older brother and me. But she really seemed to want to go to these big races because drivers Like Paul Newman and Bryan Redmann would be there!

               I soon realized I would never be the mechanic that my Dad and Brother are, and I am still not. But Dad found a way to get me connected to the cars and use my passion for drawing and painting. It started when he took me to the shop to watch a guy come in and hand letter sponsors and numbers on racecars. I was hooked, and dad could see it. He bought me my first set of brushes when I was in the eighth grade.

               I carried this fire with me into the Navy after graduation. I always had a pen and paper with me. scribbling cars all the time. After the Navy I used my G.I. Bill to pay for an AA degree in Advertising Design, and that is where I met my wife Angie in 1990. We now have three kids, and three grandkids! Angie has always let me chase my design side, I have been working in the Sign and Graphics industry since 1992 and it has always been a struggle, but struggle makes us stronger. Realizing that after so much time digital design tools have outpaced my education. Which is why I enrolled in these classes. And now that we are building our ePortfolios it is time to see what skills I have gained and share them with the world.