Author Description

Drawn To Fire. The art in this book is a compilation of over 31 years of doodles, sketches, paintings, cartoons, graphic design, freelance work and personal work. I laid out this book to give the feeling of flipping through my sketchbook. Sometimes a page will be project explorations and sometimes it will be just random idea creation. As I was considering my artwork, I realized fire seemed to be a recurring theme in my life. As a kid, I used to draw cars with flames drawn on the sides and coming out of the exhaust. I sketched tanks, bombs, and action heroes wielding flaming guns, swords, and superpowers. I also grew up in a Pentecostal church noted for its "Fire and Brimstone" preaching style. I’ve heard plenty of sermons where fire was a key element: The Burning Bush, The Pillar of Fire, etc. Then there is my fondness for playing with fire. I've always been interested in the process of lighting flames. There's something appealing about burning fallen leaves and stick teepees with crumpled paper underneath. I've spent many hours staring into campfires, transfixed by the flames’ fascinating movement. This theme of fire and my love of art come together, as currently my day job is an artist and pyrotechnician for a firework company. I get to create eye-catching labels that entice folks to buy the item, bring it home, and set it on fire. As a pyrotechnician, I entertain audiences by creating colorful explosions in the night sky. My art style is really a mix of many interests and pop culture images I had growing up in the late 70's and early 80's. When I was young, I would redraw characters from cartoons, product mascots, children’s books and a ton of comic books. Characters like Bugs Bunny, The Smurfs, Wolverine, Pillsbury Doughboy, Domino’s Pizza The Noid character, Batman, Transformers and G.I. Joe to name a few. I loved the characters on cereal boxes, the bright colored artwork on G.I. Joe, Transformers and Masters of the Universe package as wel