About the Artist
Basically a self-taught artist, I started making pencil drawings before high school but didn’t begin painting until 1994 when I received several sports-related commissions. This led to paintings of Nolan Ryan, Muhammad Ali, Emmitt Smith, Johnny Unitas, Ted Williams, Ben Crenshaw, Babe Ruth, and many others. My early work was displayed at the Ballpark at Arlington and Legends Sports in Austin. Jim Kelly, former all-pro quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and Chris Berman of ESPN own some of my work from that time period.
In 1995, the production team for the film Waiting for Guffman contacted me. The team had seen an old print of Laurel and Hardy that I had drawn in the 1980s and hired me to paint a character in the movie, giving me a chance to add some comedy to a cult classic film.
Two years later, I painted my first oil painting of the Texas Capitol. Since then, I produce the end of session lithograph for each meeting of the Texas Legislature. In 2005, I also made a painting for the lithograph used as a fundraiser for the Texas Peace Officers’ Memorial, www.pomf.org. My portfolio also includes several portraits of the state’s leaders. In 2009, I was selected to produce the print for the Texas Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C. Recently, I’ve been devoting more time to portraits in oil and became a member of the Portrait Society of America. My high school friend, author Jeff Kerr asked me to illustrate his book "The Republic of Austin" in 2010.
In my other life, I worked various jobs through college, including UPS, building greenhouses, and repairing newspaper machines for the old Houston Post. I even sold knives door-to-door. In 1981, I was hired at the Texas Legislature; in 1998, I moved into governmental relations and communications in the public pension sector. I co-created and illustrated what may have been the first comic book that helped explained the complexity of pensions to members and their beneficiaries. Since 2005, I have been the director of governmental relations at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. A graduate of Sharpstown High School (Houston) and the University of Texas, I am married to my best friend Scarlett.
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Texas Peace Officers Memorial |
Jimi Hendrix |
Muhammad Ali |
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Teddy Roosevelt |
Stonehenge |
Jack the Flash |
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The Republic of Austin |
Molokai |
Kirk Whalum |