Paint is sloppy, uncontrollable, and murderously expensive. The tactile sensation of pastels going onto paper makes my flesh creep. Colored pencils are laborious and unforgiving. Markers? Gimme a break. Why do you think I work on a computer, anyway?

Ink, graphite, and charcoal, though… Now you’re talking.

When I was twenty-three I found myself at odds and ends (believe me, there’s a story there and it ain’t pretty...) and found myself living with my grandmother in a trailer park in Sonoma. When I came I was expecting to stay for a few weeks while I sorted my life out but as soon as I walked in the door she was pushing the catalogs of all the local colleges at me. I wound up staying for two years while she supported me. I spent that time studying writing and art at Santa Rosa Community College.

My intention was to learn how to do comics. It didn’t go like that…

I had the extremely good fortune to find myself studying under a genuinely great teacher, Maurice Lapp. His approach was rigorous and classical, incorporating concepts from a vast span of history. It’s standard in art training to focus on the eye, on the ability to observe, and Maurie excelled at this. But he balanced it with the knowledge that craft is also essential and that there is an athletic component to working with physical media – and this is something that doesn’t get much attention in most beginning art classes. He made us do the hard, boring work that is absolutely necessary to the development of skill.

I still hear his voice when I work – “Look for the straight in the curved and the curve in the straight!” “Engage the entire surface of the paper!” “Look for the spine! Everything has a spine!” “Draw around the shape!”

Everything of value in my art springs from those lessons. Everything I’ve taught myself since then has been made possible by the foundation that man laid.

Thanks, Maurie.