I know the exact moment I became an artist.

My second grade teacher, Mavis Lester, of McHarg Elementary School in Radford, VA, gave everyone in my class the “draw the state bird and flower” assignment. Later, when she came to my desk, she put her hand on my shoulder and said, “John, you’re an artist” and I believed her.

Later I came under the seductive influences of MAD magazine, however, it wasn’t until much later that I offered my cartoons for publication. A dear friend, Pud Lane, inventor of Nestles’ Quick rabbit, helped me develop the audacity to do that.

Unable to convince my parents to send me to art school, I exacted my revenge twenty-two years later by sen

ding myself to art school and receiving my fourth and most favorite degree, a BVA from Winthrop University.

Along the way I have admired the work of DeKooning, Gorky,

Spencer, Arp, Delvaux, Rivers, Freud (Lucian), Fischl, Nerdrum, Mort Drucker, and my mentor, Paul Martyka.

I work in oil, acrylic, pen & ink, pastel, and photography.