The year was 1977. Elvis was dead, Carter was president, I was born and global warming was a relatively new problem. I lived in a house in McLean Virginia next to a park 5 miles from the CIA. Marine One would fly over every now and then. As far as I can remember I’ve always loved to create. Whether it was finger painting or later photography, I’ve always had to get my hands dirty. After high school and a lot of trouble and mischief, I went to Savannah College of Art and Design for photography. I studied art history, color theory printmaking and furniture design in my spare time. From there I moved back to Virginia and worked in Southeast DC as a professional photo printer. Who knew what a toll spending a year in the dark could take? At the end of that I decided to lash back and go where the sun is its brightest, and headed to South Florida. I thought it would be easy to get a job. Forget that. After September 11th nothing was easy in the creative world. No one wanted to spend money. No one wanted to go with an “up and coming” photographer. I ended up waiting tables at a restaurant on the beach. Not the worst job you can have, but one of the hottest. I had a good view though, and was well fed.

During, my time at the restaurant I started working for a child photography agency that went from school to school taking pictures of kids. I’m sure you remember those picture days, where you had to choose set A, B, or C and you could get the laser background or the fall foliage background. Well that’s what I did for nearly a year. I went to nursery schools and daycare centers all over South Florida trying not to get killed or have a child fall on their head on my watch. Finally I got fed up with that and got a job at a small design firm where I worked for the next year.

Early in 2003 I decided to go back to school for advertising. I applied to the Miami Ad School and was accepted into their masters program after taking the GRE test to qualify for a graduate level education. I hope that’s the last standardized test I ever take. Right before graduation I got hired as an Art Director at Zimmerman Advertising in Fort Lauderdale. In hind sight I probably should have taken some more time to look around, but I didn’t have any agency experience except for an internship I did in school and I had loans out the wazoo so I figured I better take the gig. After a year there I decided I needed to move up North, propose to my girlfriend and get a new job. After leaving Florida I freelanced at DraftFCB in New York and Stick and Move in Philadelphia before getting a full time art director position at Tierney in Philly. And that’s where I am now. tbc...