Is there anything about the way you produce your work that you
believe to be unique or unusual?

My base is deeply rooted in the sketchbook and when I am between the
pages drawing and writing, my imagination is engaged; this place inside
clean white sheets of paper is the one comfortable world that I don't feel
divided. I think that I am unique in that my style is spanning the great
divide between digital and traditional art. I am experiencing the thrill of
digital media while at the same time, I have this traditional background
that makes me appreciate the freedom of computer-aided design. Digital
Illustration and Design are so incredibly flexible. Where once the
expertise of the paints on canvas defined freedom, "Control U" (undo) is
the metaphor that defines the digital age and freedom associated with this
metaphor.
The future, to me, looks good. I picture myself and the digital illustrator
of the future looking somewhat like Van Gogh standing in the countryside
painting on a large canvas-like monitor attached to an easel. And in my
hand, around my thumb, is a digital palette that contains painterly effects
and colors for creating digital illustrations. I look and feel like the
artist that I sense is true to the craft. I do not mean, by this, that you
must look like an "Artist" to be one. The tools that an artist use are very
personal. To sketch, I use a graphite pencil or a mechanical pencil. I
enjoy these tools and I love how they feel in my hand. I believe, like many
artist of this age, that we are about to experience something incredible.
This trend of the future that I speak of will be a refinement of the
standards that have been set. It will be internalized and reinterpreted.
Part of this movement will be the establishment of digital media. Some may
argue that it has already been secured but I tend to believe that we rush
too quickly into thinking we are farther ahead than we are. If you really
think of it, do you truly trust digital art yet? I know when I work with
digital art, I'm nagged by the question: "how do I get this out on print
media." When this sort of question has been resolved, we will have
established digital media. We are infants in this digital age and just
maybe, in the next twenty years, we will put a statue up in the halls of
fame for the digital arts. Standing right next to that statue will be the
statue of Photography.

What style of art really makes you angry?

I wasn't going to answer this question but the more I thought about it
the more I was intrigued by it. I was involved with a newsgroup thread that
was dealing with this topic. My conclusion was that we are all involved
with art on some level. Making a sandwich, in some respects is art.
Japanese culture really embraces this concept of living beauty. They
ritualize many common events of life and make them a thing of beauty; one
such event is the tea ceremony. So, in order to answer the question, I'd
have to contradict myself but if there were one type of art that makes me
angry, it's art that is done purely for profit without any consideration for
what it means aesthetically or intellectually. If it's done for arts sake,
it's art.

Who do you feel has influenced art most this century?

Some people may say that art is dead but I believe that we are simply
in the process of finding ourselves half awake. I am being slightly
facetious but I believe that Dr. Suess has been a very influential figure
this century. There are, of course, so may artists that I would give credit
to but I feel that the artists involved with popular commercial mediums are
very sophisticated and educated artists. They're creating children's books,
editorial images, and promotional masterpieces that deserve a great deal of
attention and applause. My interest has always been children's books.
Illustrators such as Bill Joyce, Mark Buehner, Mary Grandpre, Daniel Adel,
Steve Johnson, James Gurney, and Berkeley Breathed are just a few of recent
artists that I admire. There are a great number of artist doing
this sort of work and I hope to work on the same level as they are.