I make joyful paintings, mostly. Joy is fascinating and fun.  Sometimes these paintings are large, 36 x 48 acrylic paintings showing heroic adventurers and monsters having fun, or 11 x 15 interchangeable paintings of church members laughing over coffee, or small watercolors on 4 x 6 postcards of wholesome, erotic hairy fairies living in community in a garden. I make portraits of people laughing. I make paintings of fat hairy queer fairies because they make me smile and I didn’t see their bodies in art. I didn’t see my body in art. I also use Monsters who are not trying to be scary as ways to talk about queer bodies and sexuality. They are also laughing.  

We need that laughter.

In 2020, I created a garden in my art to bring me peace. I was trying to keep out all the chaos of the pandemic. That’s what gardens are for. I filled mine with fairies. I made these hairy fairies to keep me entertained, to build my artistic skills, but also to explore larger bodies in art, and really, just to have fun! It seemed to work for me, and for my friends.  I allowed myself to play. And I made a little rent along the way, during a bad time.

It’s nearly 2025, and I’m still playing.

I was a pencil portrait artist on streetcorners and in front of Piggly-Wiggly when I was 15, having sketched from comic books, and drawn birds, and sketched the backs of people’s heads for some time. I stopped making art, except to make extra money for commissions, when I went to college.

I turned to writing and teaching until I was 50. In between high school and 50, I had a lot of adventures—- I got a PhD in English. I lived in the Yukon Territory for nearly 10 years. I published a lot of science fiction and fantasy and was a finalist for a World Fantasy award in 2020. I sang in choirs. I became a music minister and a deacon of music. I discovered I was gay. I got let go from all those church jobs! I created a website for other gay Christians trying to figure out how to come out to their churches. I discovered I had a birthmother, and we went to Ireland! I taught at so many wonderful colleges and universities across the nation for thirty years.

Then in 2018, there was no teaching for me, and I decided to see if there was any art left in me. I got a studio at Front Street Studios and for a year, I learned what art I had left—-but I also learned about myself.

Most of this portfolio is from that radical turn of career. I went to CCAD in Columbus in 2019 for a semester and a half before the pandemic happened and I was living in the basement of my friends’ house. I dropped out of art school (since it was going to be online and I would be taking out loans for it). I had learned in art school that it was my daily practice that mattered the most—so I turned to creating some daily practice. As I said, that daily practice helped me stay focused away from my anxiety of the outside world.

Later, after the pandemic was over, after I had a brief 9 month Assistant Professor of English position in Kentucky In 2023, I came back to Dayton. I was an artist-in-residence at my church, teaching what I knew about the spiritual nature of the arts, of creating art, and writing. And while living here in Dayton, OH, I received an Individual artist grant from CultureWorks and Montgomery County that allowed me to learn illustration from Greg Manchess, a renowned and very cool illustrator whose work reminded me of some of the painters I emulated and loved, like NC Wyeth.

Now I’m exploring illustration and cartooning a bit more—- working as a back-up cartoonist for a small independent newspaper in Silverton, CO, and dreaming of becoming a cover artist for the New Yorker one day. Next year I’ll be offering painting and writing classes for folks through my church and online on Youtube that explores more spiritual topics and creating art that gives us joy.

In the end, it’s about joy. Painting brings me joy. I hope my painting brings you joy too!