Remembering my life...

Born into a military family, I grew up and lived all over the world. I remember walking deserted farmland fields outside of Richmond, Virginia after a spring downpour of rain and finding Civil War grapeshot and even once a whole cannon ball. I ice fished for perch on frozen lakes in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Later we lived in Germany and I recall walking through enchanted forests and visiting medieval castles, and winter days - cold, gray and mysterious.

As a teenager I grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. There was no American television. My God! What to do? I took 3rd class trains and buses everywhere, traveling up into the mountains, chugging through 3 temperate zones, arid rocky river beds, bamboo rain forests, snow laden cedars and icy frosty air. I visited pottery villages, wood carvers, ivory carvers, furniture makers, wooden boat builders and the National Palace Museum, home of China's greatest art treasures brought over from the mainland by Chiang Kai Shek in 1949.

I graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a B.F.A. in sculpture. Then I moved to San Francisco where I entered welding school - building steel boats. Later, I made wooden houses in the great redwood forest.

I returned to Florida and got a lucky break working for a New York artist as her studio assistant - building wall sculptures, wooden crates, meeting art dealers and other artists.

My first sculptures were scrap metal - welded together and painted black or red.

My second lucky break came when a Palm Beach resident wanted a large aluminum sculpture for his backyard. One thing led to another and I was able to make a living as a full time artist. And that's where I am now, in the new millennium, year 2012