I was born and raised in Massachusetts and decided at a young age to study art. I finally got my early training at Pratt Institute, in the days when all they taught — or believed in — was AB-EX. This was not the direction I thought I should go in but no one else thought art that looked like something recognizable was a valid direction. It took me a long time to realize that I had been brainwashed.
Luckily, I continued to draw every day and that prepared me for becoming a student of Graydon Parrish, and learning his color system.