To be perfectly honest, I do not have an abstract bone in my body, nor an eye for color. I'm a bit of a linear thinker, a realist, and a slave to detail. So I do not claim to be an 'artist' per se; just a self-taught 'illustrator.' But I learned at an early age how to make individual lines combine and relate to form just about any object or character I chose to assemble (when I was about 6 or 7 years old, in fact... I can remember the specific occasion when I 'got it,' actually). Since then, the years might have added some polish to my trial-and-error technique, taught me 'perspective' and 'expression' and shading and all that, as well as steadying my hand. But it was the effort to imitate my favorite pen-and-ink line-artists (like Moebius) that really gave my 'art' some teeth. By the time I'd reached my 20s and was serving in the U.S. Air Force, I was doing custom and personalized artwork for just about any friend, relative or co-worker that requested it... portraits, caricatures, collages... cartoons, homages to Elvis, and going-away mementos, whatever... mostly pen-and-ink, all of it for free. It was a hobby for me, and that's all it was. I just liked doing it, and never took it too seriously. Over time, I got better at it, and was even in some demand. And that was okay. Then came the 'Big Project'... the one that ended it as a 'hobby' for me.

The 'Big Project' was a boardgame that two of my best friends and I co-designed, which we called "Race To The Moon," and about which I am extremely proud. It was an historically accurate recreation of the so-called Space Race, except that up to four 'nations' (players) could participate. And I did all the artwork for it... all the technical stuff, anyway: the original board's playing surface, the box cover, and all 250 different pieces of space 'hardware'... first for the play-testing version, then all over again (and more precisely) for the published boardgame itself (renamed "Liftoff!," and produced by Task Force Games), and then one more time, with even more excruciating attention to detail, for the computer version (renamed again to "Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space," by Interplay). And by the time I got to that third go-around, I was so sick of the thing, I couldn't stand the sight of my drawing easel any more. Loved the game (although not so much its later 'streamlined' incarnations), but was dead tired of painstakingly re-drawing the same hundreds of detailed drawings over and over and over again. Only my contractual obligations pushed me all the way to the end... at which point I put down my pens and never looked back. I did give Disney Animation a shot in 1991 when I got out of the Air Force, but that was a short-lived pipe-dream, and only cemented my feelings of disinterest thereafter. With the exception of a handful of rough sketches and some logo ideas over the years that followed, I've drawn nothing since.

So, collected here are what few dusty old leavings and leftovers I could find in my ancient 'art drawer.' I'm still proud of them, and I do miss the subconscious drive that once created them all (along with so many more that were given away without copies being made), but that impetus has definitely long since fled.

Well... I've at least got this much to show for it...