• In your book, you say that the initial urge to paint came to you suddenly during a charity event.

Yes, I was with my wife at a black tie fundraising event in Boston in October 2000 for a charity called Angel Flight.  They fly patients all around the country to hospitals using private pilots who volunteer their time, planes and fuel.  Larry, the president of Angel Flight was giving an inspiring speech.  I was suddenly struck with the image of a painting beside Larry up on stage.  It was just a vision, but later when I described it to my wife Judy and expressed a desire to find an artist to paint it, Judy suggested I try painting it myself.

 

Of course I was quite the opposite of an artist; I had no talent, no training, and no time.  Eventually however, I found myself at the art supply store, and now four and a half years later I am selling my work in five galleries across the country.

• Have you been able to earn a living as an artist? 

No, I continue to work as an executive for a sporting goods company, Atomic USA.  I am an accountant by training.  I have an MBA in Finance.  I have spent my entire career in financial jobs, and general management.  Which is why this discovery of my artistic abilities has been so strange. 

• Have you received any training in art? 

Outside of some mentoring by my wife’s uncle, who was a retired art teacher, I have purposely stayed away from formal art training.  I started painting because I felt a strong need to create that first painting for the president of Angel Flight.  After that, every morning new images would come to me and I would paint them, alone in my studio.  No thinking. No schools.  Nobody telling me what was right what was wrong.  I just wanted to paint whatever I felt like painting, however I felt like painting it.

• But you must have liked drawing and doodling as a kid. 

I actually really disliked both.  For me, drawing seemed like a waste of time.  I was a typical math geek—thick glasses, read voraciously, and found pleasure in doing logic and math puzzles.  And I was interested in money at a young age—I started selling greeting cards door to door when I was 10, had a paper route when I was 11, added lawn mowing and selling garden seeds, yo-yo’s and ice scrapers door to door in my teens. 

• You talk a lot in your book about a left brain-right brain transition.  Explain that. 

All my life, my left brain—the analytical side—was so dominant, so much a part of how I identified myself.  I am predictable, I get to my appointments on time, I am dependable, responsible, exact, precise, resolute, steady---all the things you would expect in an accountant. 

 

So, when I started to paint, I had to set aside all those attributes to see what was on the other side of the brain.  In other words, how do you “feel” a painting to completion?  If I love a tree and want to paint it red to show my passion for that tree, how does the accountant reconcile that the tree really is not red in real life.  That was not easy.  There were times I was shaking from exhaustion—the battle inside between both sides of the brain trying to win the argument.  “You're feeling red, you know it.”  “Don’t be an idiot—the tree is brown.”

• What makes your art unique, distinctive? 

I use a palette knife; I load it with paint and move it on the canvas.  These movements, often quick, with a lot of passion, are used to create fairly simple, quiet compositions. And since I like harmonizing colors, I tend to use color in a very pleasing way.  Eventually, I came to realize that, in artistic terms, I had developed a unique style that not many artists have pursued.  Most artists try to create tension in a painting with color, tonal contrasts or subject matter.  I have taken the exact opposite tact, creating tension in the movement of the paint itself, while my colors and subject matter are quiet and pleasant.  

• What does your employer and your co-workers think about all this? 

They have been very supportive to me.  I am a very dedicated employee—the President and the Board know how dedicated I am and how much of myself I give to my company and my employees.  And my employees know how hard I work to support them. 

• So, a full-time job, a successful second career as an artist, and I understand you have six kids, too.  How do you find time to paint? 

My wife and I have a blended family—three of her kids and three of mine.  They are not with us 100% of the time though so, for example, we have every other weekend without children—I paint a lot then.  Plus even when the kids are with us, I paint around their schedule—in the evenings after work, I will often be in the studio and if the kids need help with math homework, they interrupt me.  My whole family, particularly my wife, is incredibly supportive.

• Why write a book about this? 

The idea came to me after my second art opening.  Collectors were gushing—not just over my art, but how my art made them feel, and how my story made them feel.  My art evokes passionate feelings.  And it seemed that my story was really inspiring to others.  So I wanted to chronicle my experience so others could be inspired to find what’s inside of them.  We all wonder what our special gifts are; I would urge all of us to take a chance in finding them.

• What tips or helpful advice do you have for anyone who thinks there might be an artist inside of him or her?

First— Make a commitment to letting your artist out any way it feels right.  No rules about good art or bad art.  Second— Avoid the details, particularly at first.  Your creativity comes from the opposite side of you than your need for detail.  Third— Give yourself the gift of privacy.  Don’t feel obligated to show your art to anyone… you will know when you are ready to hear another opinion expressed.  And finally, don’t linger between creations.  Move on to the next creation quickly, particularly if you are not pleased with the last one.  Keep creating.