I grew up in Irvine, California, where I lived in the same house from kindergarten through part of college. My father was a small business owner and my mother was a homemaker who worked with my dad for a while. As a college student, my mom used to book models for East L.A. College's art department. So, genetically speaking, maybe that's where my interest in art came from. My sister is a photographer based in L.A.
While in college I met my future wife. She was a "little sister" in my fraternity and after about 8 years of dating, we married in 1994. She's a first grade teacher. And my best friend. My wife and I are outnumbered by our three kids: two boys and a girl. They range in age from eight to one year old.
My college career started at the University of California, Irvine in 1982. I started off as a studio art major, but soon realized I didn't have much of a talent for "making" art, so I switched to "studying" it. I completed my undergraduate degree in art history at UCI in 1987. Thinking I wanted to teach high school art, art history or social studies, I completed a year of teacher education courses at U.C. Irvine. I received my teaching credential in art education and social science in 1989. After student teaching in high school art and ceramics classes, and some substitute teaching, I realized that the college level was more for me. I entered San Diego State University and received my Master's in art history at SDSU in 1992. My thesis was on art censorship in post-World War II America. For comparison, I also discussed art censorship in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Except for years (and years) of part-time warehouse work for my dad's plumbing company, most of my work experience has been in teaching. I substitute taught for 4 different school districts in Orange County, as well as a private Catholic school in Fullerton. My first experience teaching college was as an adjunct instructor at Cerritos College in Norwalk in 1993. During the next few years, I was an adjunct at Brooks College in Long Beach (a private design school), Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Rio Hondo College in Whittier, Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, and Santa Monica College. At one point, I was teaching at four of these colleges simultaneously, eating lunch on the 105 freeway between schools and preparing for classes in my car or at the cafeteria. In 1997, I was fortunate to be hired as an assistant professor here at Palomar College.
As a graduate student at SDSU in 1990, I presented a paper at an art history symposium at Cal State Long Beach. The paper, which dealth with Pre-Columbian sculpture, was titled, "An Attribution Problem with a West Mexican Tomb Pair." In 1996, I lectured on "Greek Art and the Concept of the Self" at a Cerritos College conference. In 1998 and 1999, I was part of Santa Monica College's "Art in the Evening" lecture series. Some of my lectures included, "Couples in Art," "The Nude in Art," "Artists and Light," "Realism in Art," "King Tutankhamun," and "Movement in Art." In 2005 I led a couple of bus tours from Palomar College, through the Community Development department, to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for their "King Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibition. My lectures focused on King Tut and his place in the 18th Dynasty.
As an undergraduate, I joined the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. I'm also a member of the U.C. Irvine Alumni Association, the Palomar Faculty Federation, and the College Art Association.
I've always been a big movie fan and as an instructor I basically tell stories all day, so I decided to try my hand at screenwriting (a marriage of writing and visual story-telling). Click here to go to my screenwriting page.
Aside from writing, my wife and I like to hike when we get the chance, and ride Sea-Doos on the Colorado River. Apart from trips to New York and Europe, we like to travel to some local spots, like Carmel, Vegas, Santa Barbara, and Tucson (where we have relatives). Of course, that was mostly BO (Before Offspring). Now, with the young 'uns, we're mostly at Legoland, the Wild Animal Park and Disneyland.
Big Elvis fan. Click on Elvis' head for a surprise.
