"Many artist's bios have a list of achievements and contest winning awards. I keep forgetting to enter contests. Maybe because making art has nothing to do with competition for me. I wouldn't care if I won. I also keep forgetting to join clubs and art societies. Thus, held no important positions to boast about. Don't worry, I plan to do both starting this week. ;)

I went to college a long time ago. We didn't have computers. I’ve wasted entire evenings back in the day comping a single poster idea with press type only to end up with a C+ result. Thank the skies for the advent of computers and desktop publishing software.

My first year out of school, I landed a job on Michigan Ave. in Chicago with an ad agency, which proved to be creatively unfulfilling as time went on. So I put together a portfolio of my work, and hit the streets banging on doors. This launched my freelance business, and I was off to the races.

I started out doing B2B design and advertising, and slowly began getting illustration assignments for Crain's Chicago Business and The Chicago Tribune. Things started to really pick up when I met Triumph Books. I ended up illustrating 25 different coffee table books with them, including For the Love of The Cubs, For the Love of the Red Sox, For the Love of Dogs, For the Love of Cats, and countless others spanning anything from sports to current events to religions.

At the same time, I started working on an ad campaign for Allstate Insurance. I ended up illustrating ads for Allstate for over seven years designing over 30 ads. During that time, whenever I would go into the doctor's office for my annual physical, I would see a National Geographic or USA News, the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, on the tables and Barry Blitt would be on the front and my ads would be on the back. I must admit that I wished it was the other way around, but it was cool nonetheless. Barry Blitt is one of my heroes, and to be on a magazine with him... well... it felt good.

These days, when I'm not working on commission projects, I enjoy passing on the love of art to the next generation. I’ve even developed my own process for teaching watercolor to young students that involves no more than two colors. Through this lesson, the students learn to understand the important complementary aspects of warm and cool color, and the many things you can do–all with only two!"