My interest in describing feelings and events began at an early age along with an impulse to graphically capture things on canvas or paper that moved me. Today,  I see myself as a poet, painter and novelist, and am especially driven by an intense, ongoing desire to better understand the influence history and culture has on human behavior. I meet every new day with a near insatiable desire to assemble the influencial fragments of my life's experience into wholistic artistic images that I can share with others. After a three-year stint in the army in Friedberg, Germany along side Elvis Presley in the Third Armored Divison, I traveled around Europe and had already seen Yogoslavia, Turkey, the British Isles, and Scandinavia by my 21st birthday. The G.I. Bill gave me a pathway to a college education. I did two years at Grays Harbor college in Washington State, and continued my studies in Heidelberg, Germany at Schiller International University. A masters degree in counseling was earned at night school while driving heavy trucks for the U.S. Army in Frankfurt. The writers that have influenced me come from many different cultures, and I prefer realistic stories that deal with the challenges of ordinary life. My former work in adult and juvenile corrections, geriatric social work, as well as experience as a family thearapist and substance abuse counselor with an American tribe, has contributed immensley to my material stockpile!