I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina in the late 70s and early 80s and navigated two very different cultures. My father's family represented a classic emigrant story, coming to America at the turn of the 20th century from Poland and settling in Chicago to work on the railroads. My mother's family represented a traditional, established Southern family, able to trace their lineage to the 17th century.
Attending Catholic school in the South offered another experience of cultural duality. While in school I came to encounter the symbolism and ritual associated with what effectively remains a mystery religion, and this system has greatly influenced my work. I began to understand that identities are carefully crafted over time, and institutions have constructed identities in much the same way as people.
While attending the University of South Carolina I studied history before I studied art as my formal major. What fascinated me about history was how open it was to interpretation, and how those interpretations were constantly in flux. The process of historiography reminded me very much of the process of identity building and I realized how much people needed to believe that history was some kind of an absolute.
After college I became a member of the urban Atlanta art collective Concept Union and that experience taught me that art could exist and prosper in unexpected places. My work then coalesced into the themes of history, myth, and identity which had been of such profound interest to me over the years. I earned my MFA in painting from the University of Alabama in 2006 and teach there currently as a full time instructor of art and art history.