I’m just one of those kids who will never grow up. The ability to have fun with art is part of being me -- don’t know when it started and I don’t want it to stop.

I paint with a variety of media and materials; I draw and cartoon, do caricatures at parties and special events, have been an artist- in- residence and teach now and then. I paint a variety of subject matter but enjoy painterly abstracts most of all.

While in the military I drew cartoons for the base newspapers and sold cartoons to various magazines. In Philadelphia I studied basic designs (before computers) and figure drawing. I consider myself mostly self-taught or on- the- job trained. To me creating is the important part of my art.

Drawing with bold strokes, using India ink and a love of birds, I caricatured birds on large sheets of paper. The New York Public Library featured my birds in an international funds raiser mailing. My bird posters raised money for the library and have traveled to all parts of the globe.

A special treat for me was when Creative Playthings first arrived on the market. The Rochester Memorial Art Gallery featured their toys, and asked me to display my child- like birds and animals on the walls of the gallery. It was a treat for my parents to witness, my dad inquired, what do the red dots mean? There were a total of one hundred red dots. Ask any artist how that feels especially at a prestigious gallery.

On canvas I use a variety of strokes for floral designs, woodland and most recently my planetscapes and mindscapes. I did a woodland painting that was chosen through the Art in Embassies Program. It was hanging in the American embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for three years.

That kid in me was on stage of the Eastman Theater in Rochester, with the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Eastman School of Music students, a full house of patrons. The (then mayor) Steven May reading the accompanying story, the Philharmonic playing the Carnival of Animals, my children in the audience waved to me, and me, shaking in my shoes. I did draw in time with the music, more than several animals. It did not register immediately, but it was fun -- I think.

Let it be known as I enter my second or third childhood, I’m having a great time with my art.