As a child growing up in the 60's I remember listening to all of my Father's flying stories. During WWII he served in the USMC as an aircraft mechanic on F6F Hellcats. After the war he used his GI Bill to pay for his flying lessons all the way to multi-engine and to his commercial pilot's rating. During that time in 1948 war surplus airplanes were readily available for him to fly so he had the opportunity to fly the old classics such as the PT-17 Stearman, the PT-19 Fairchild, the BT-13 Vultee and the AT-17 Bobcat. I loved listening to him talk about his flying experience. So I grew up loving aviation. My Mother loved art and she would work with me and encouraged me to be involved with art. So all through school I took all the art classes I could. The combination of aviation and art were instilled in me at a very early age. More....

Later I went on to earn my Engineering Degree while attending Bowling Green State University then University of Toledo. Even though my major was Engineering I took every art class I could work into my schedule. After graduating I worked in the Automotive industry and raised a family which did not allow much time for me to pursue my interest in art. I went on to get my own private pilots license and enjoyed flying. I also had a very strong interest in World War II aviation history so I have read and studied as much as possible about the topic. There were times that I did take some time to do some painting over the years but it was something that I didn't push because of my other priorities. Here recently I have retired and I am now ready to get back into it. This is something that I now want to spent time doing.