Bio

I was born in Frankfurt, Germany and immigrated to the United States at the age of two with my German mother and Estonian/American father.  I was raised in Chicago until the age of 9 when my father, then a businessman, decided to become a dairy farmer.  For those who remember the TV sitcom “Green Acres”, well, I lived it complete with a mother who had a wonderful German accent.  My love for being an artist started young and by the fourth grade I had won my first drawing contest in school.  In high school I again excelled in art and started exploring with my talent in black and white photography.  Winning several ribbons in photography in the local fairs competing with other adults.  In college I was formally diagnosed as red-green-brown colorblind. It was something I suspected for a long time.  I choose a conventional career as a high school teacher and then school administrator.  I became Superintendent of Washington Island School district and then Mellen School District.  In 2019 I formally ended my administrative career.  As much as I loved working in schools there was always a part of me that felt incomplete.

In 2016 while living alone on Washington Island still working as Superintendent, I spent a number of evenings with an artist neighbor and close friend, discussing art.  We would enter his amazing studio and the place felt completely natural to me.  We would discuss his work and challenges with a particular piece he was working on.  He would ask my advice and I would say, “Well I am not an artist, but here is what I am thinking.”  Tim would listen and correct me by saying, “You are an artist, you just don’t know it.”  He convinced me to try to paint, using pastels.  Being colorblind I had an aversion to using the color of green, red or brown, and did a simple landscape in blue and black.  I hadn’t painted anything for 35 years, and the simple composition of a winter scene at night with pine trees was first painting in a long time.  After completing it there was a strange sensation of entering a forgotten world. I was like finding yourself standing on a stepping stone in the middle of a stream and looking for the next stone.  In the evening I found myself continuing to create and experiment with new techniques and compositions I would dream up.  For 35 years I would see images that I felt were worthy compositions.  I went as far as to imagine how I would go about creating such an image.  But never had the courage to try, however the thought process of approaching a painting has served me well.  Starting a painting has never been a problem.  The delight is finding new challenges that each painting offers, and I have been painting since.

Currently I reside off the grid in a small 450 square ft. cabin with a tiny studio and loving life.  I am represented by four galleries, one in Chicago and three in Washburn, Wisconsin.