BIO

Nine months after a Mexican vacation contest win and a wild margarita infused time at the Azteca Inn in Mazatlán, I reported for duty in the summer of ‘84. Luckily for my mother I was not born literally with a pencil in hand but I was encouraged to pick one up shortly thereafter. Actually it may have been a crayon for that first leg of the journey, but whatever.

Raised by film buffs with a catalog of VHS tapes that eventually counted into triple digits, I learned of the finer things in life. From the mischievous adventures of Jason Voorhees, or the deft detective skills of Inspector Clouseau. To the dangers of serving fish on an airplane, or the moral integrity of Robocop’s prime directives. This wealth of film knowledge and not entirely age-appropriate subject matter paired well with a love of animation and comic books, and combined with my feverishly growing drawing habit, my career path was set before I’d even made it to second grade. Animation.

Shocking though it may be, the means to make actual animation was not readily available to a toddler in the 80s/90s, so instead, I leaned into making comics as an alternative illustrative based storytelling. After several years of unfinished half baked and incomprehensible attempts, I finally finished my first full length comicbook at the age of 12, which became a gateway to several years of comic making with a near addiction-level frequency, expanding my roster of characters and concepts until I had a whole potpourri of derivative grade school fair mixed with a healthy dose of legitimately creative imagination.

I started doing freelance illustration and cartooning in high school thanks to two local talent agents. By “local” of course, I mean the house, and by “talent agents” I of course mean my parents, whose friends and co-workers sometimes needed logos and caricatures. Around this time I finally began learning methods of creating animation at home, and even adapted one of my aforementioned comics into a 75 minute animated feature using tragically low rez Photoshop docs and Adobe Premiere. No, you may not see this film. But it was the first of many learning experiences in animated filmmaking.

CDIS, the Centre for Digital Imaging and Sound, was a new animation and film school in Vancouver at the time and after a week long work experience program that impressed my teenaged eyes with its flashy and high-tech new campus I enrolled with excitement to truly learn my craft. Then, on the day of my orientation the school was bought by the Art Institute of Vancouver, forever altering my school paperwork to be branded as the fast food chain of art schools. But corporate logos aside, I learned from a plethora of fine and fun instructors with CDIS’s as of yet unaltered curriculum and was one of only two students to pursue classical animation the year that I graduated.

The next several years were a hurricane of life and work experiences that ultimately brings us to the present day. Through the last couple decades I’ve made two animated features, several animated shorts, four graphic novels, a twice weekly webcomic, and an annual horror comic. I’ve directed and animated music videos for a variety of genres and artists. I’ve done comic strips for charities and informational websites and even pizza boxes. I’ve animated on TV shows and commercials. Created animated segments for documentaries and narrative features. I’ve written screenplays. I’ve illustrated books. I’ve done live caricatures for events. I’ve done voice over work. I’ve done storyboards and concept art. I’ve done book covers and album covers and comicbook covers and tons of other commissioned illustrations. And I’m still not done with any of it.

Currently I teach several classes at Vancouver Film School in their Foundation and Connect programs while continuing to do freelance animation and art along with my own creative pursuits.  There are more comics, and shorts and maybe even films coming from me folks. Keep your eyes peeled and let me know if there’s any art or animation I can help you with!