 I was 40 years old when I had that first show of 23 paintings. I was working as a graphic designer and graphic illustrator for 20 years and I loved my job. With an economic downturn in the early 90s and the advent of the computer and desktop publishing, my income went to 25% of what it was the year before. I thought, well, computer is a brilliant tool but it also will make handmade human things more precious. A lot of my heroes were painters and so I went to the art store and bought brushes and canvas. And so I started painting. I had the opportunity to show at a local gallery. The fellow saw a few of my pieces, told me we could have a show in three months. I did 23 paintings in that time. The show did well. That said, I was also working on a Hennessy Martini piece at the same time and I made more from that one illustration than I did those 23 paintings. I knew with that modest income that I would have to change my life. And so I sold my nice house and nice car and committed myself to living on the leaner side in order to pursue this career. We are so defined by what we do and what I did for the last 20 years disappeared. And it was the most challenging time in my life. I was on my knees. It was a terrible time for me. So the painting was a wonderful place to hide. I figured if I kept my hands busy and my mind busy and all of that then I wouldn't concentrate on where I was in my life at that kind of advanced stage. Thankfully because I've worked for myself since I got out of school I have a good work ethic and so I get here at 7.30 in the morning and I work till 5.30 at night. Most of the time I'm eating at Trader Joe's Burrito at the easel. Now doing this 25 years later I still love what I do. I still can't wait to get to work and solve that next problem. And I am more excited now about the images I create than I've ever been because I am preceded by greatness but that doesn't mean I can't climb there. I was having a show in Salisbury and my dealer suggested I see the show at the Albertina Museum because I had some work on it. And then I get inside and my images are hanging across the room from Alex Katzins and Gerhard Richters on that wall and Roy Lichtensteins is over here and there's Picasso's and Modigliani's in this show and my work is hanging with them These are all the guys that inspired me to paint in the beginning. I am so thankful for those opportunities to have my work seen that way and to be able to do the work that I'm doing today but I also feel like this is only the beginning.