For as long as I can remember, I have had the habit of paying careful attention to the world around me. My eyes have always felt like an always-open lens (shutter?), ineluctably drawn to variation and contrast in light, color, shape, movement. It’s no accident that I was drawn from a very early age to photography and design. Later, during adolescence, when change was mostly something painful that afflicted me in the form of acne, dashed romantic hopes, and other familiar teenage torments, I took comfort in knowing how deeply variation and change were part of everything I saw around me. It gave me a “this too shall pass” perspective that made it easier not to take things too seriously.

In college and adulthood, my fascination with change deepened into a belief system and personal aesthetic. Where others might fear change, I came to fear the absence of change. This probably explains my restlessness and high energy as well as my career trajectory, which, while not always smooth, has developed largely as a result of a willingness to take risks and try new forms. Today, I find this is what keeps me going. Each day I discover something new that enables me to think and create differently. This is the true secret of life’s terrible beauty—that no matter how unbearable it can be one day, the next offers the possibility of relief, redemption, renewal.

Not surprisingly, I tend to view my life and personal development from the perspective of metamorphosis—a passage through distinct stages toward some always evolving form that subsumes the earlier incarnations and identities without destroying them. I feel that I am many people and many selves, in a much less ambitious but not dissimilar sense as Walt Whitman in Leave of Grass. I am variously a husband, father, uncle, friend, designer, photographer, business owner, freelancer, web designer, camper, cook, scuba diver, hiker, gardener, teacher, volunteer, bartender, snowboarder, runner, and avid music lover,—and a desire to create art runs through each of these personas. My life is my creation, and it reflects my affinity for transformation, recombination and mutation.

This is also why my design work serves as a "bridge" between graphic design and photography. I have come to enjoy this relationship, how one contributes to the other; it is in understanding this creative volley that I have found my way forward. Even though design has been a large part of my life for many years now, I am constantly trying to find new ways to incorporate photography into my design work. I feel that the creative process of design contributes to the growth of my photographic vision. By practicing both skill sets, this allows me to offer a "bigger picture" to the client, which in the end creates more dynamic designs.

I have become a fan of the Internet for this reason as well—the fact that it is constantly growing and evolving, like we are, fascinates me. It opens up new worlds of creative collaboration for creatives/professionals to learn and share their work with the world. The "open source" platform is to information technology what adaptation and genetic mutation are to evolution of the species—a world of new combinations is now possible because anyone anywhere on the planet can play a role in creating a new piece of software, blog, whatever the subject matter may be. In design, the old rules no longer apply. Yes, it's important to have an established look, feel, concept, etc., but now the content we create and the creative process itself are constantly changing. This may be challenging, but it feels appropriate and all too human. I’ve tried to import this spirit into the creation of my own website, which I see as a place where I can share what I've learned and possibly inspire someone or something new along the way...