My life as an "artist" has been a series of fits and starts! A discovered talent at an early age, I was easily distracted from the solitary discipline of making art. I learned the basics from a "how to draw" TV show and by 8 or 9, I copied the masters, portraits, nudes, etc. Growing up in a Cuban-American household provided a frame of reference quite distinct from the outside world. I survived and even thrived, but with new distractions.

Later in life I wrestled with my passion for art and making a living. I seldom drew or painted for years at a time. At 35, I left corporate life to enter art school - The Rhode Island School of Design.  This was a great experience and a rich new beginning for me. But responsibilities of a new marriage and the start of a family soon appeared and I saw art and my new duties as mutually exclusive.  Being a husband and father is one of the best decisions of my life, and would do it all again. 20 years later, and fed up with corporate life, art - my mistress reappears and I remember why I am here - and that I have much to do.

I now realize that there is a difference between what I "know" about creating art, and "being" an artist. For me, it's not only about how I think and see the world - it's about making art and doing so in a way that is distinctive and personal. I have been very fortunate in life and even though I may still need to "work to provide", my transformation as an artist may have saved my soul: creating art is a source of my passion, power and purpose; a sanctuary in a dimension without time or space.

My process to create depends on what I am doing. Although I am a visual person, meaning, especially trying to communicate meaning, happens within language for me. My approach is to be deliberate if not precise with what and how I am communicating. That means identifying lists of words and thinking about them as symbols that elegantly communicate. From there, images show up. After a series of sketches to iron out design and color, I move to painting.