Origin: I grew up a wildling in rural Michigan. The unique biome I grew up in blessed me with deep respect and awe for the natural world. I spent all my time outside hunting for reptiles and amphibians, studying flowers and insects, playing in the rain, chasing rainbows, looking for imaginary beasts, and making fairy houses.

School: I double majored in art and environmental biology in Michigan, then attended Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, where I studied painting and drawing, but was robbed of my BFA when my student loan company rejected funding for my thesis year. This turn of events led to my exodus from Portland and my epic bicycle adventure of over 1,100 miles through Oregon, Washington, Northern California, then Wisconsin and Minnesota. Ask me about it sometime.

Interests: These days, my interests are in illustrative realism, realism and portraiture, drawing on my knowledge of botanicals and biomes, themes of dream worlds and technology meeting nature. See my news page for more. I strive to pull from my background in the fine arts, and to develop my work to advance tattooing as an extension of the fine arts.