This page is all about me!
Not that I think anyone cares, but if you do here is where
you will find out more about me than you ever wanted to know.
A brief history... Well maybe not that brief, I'll
try to keep it short, but first a little back-story. I'm an artist, not a
weekend warrior or coffee shop artist. No I'm the real deal, for better or worse, mostly worse, I've lived my life as an artist. It's how I define myself, it's what consumes me. For as long as I can remember I've had
this worm in my head, driving me to create!
When I was a kid I was always getting into trouble for
drawing hot rods, motorcycles, and big boobed cartoon girls on my desks, or
anywhere else I could get my grubby little fingers on. No matter how much my
teacher smacked my knuckles with her ruler, I just wouldn’t
stop. Then one day, when I came to school there was a sheet of drawing paper
taped to the top of my desk. When I looked up, astonished, my teacher was
standing there in front of me. She just sighed and said, "I give up,"
and handed me a brand new box of pencils, a box of crayons and an eraser. A
renegade artist was born!
Since that day I've been trying to live my life as an
artist, to use my talents and skills to create cool shit! I have an AS degree
in graphic design, not that I think that matters much, I believe it’s
the work you do not the classes you’ve taken. I've worked as
a graphic designer for most my life as a way to pay the bills, but it never was
enough to quench my desire to do cool shit! It’s never been more than a
job.
Although I have always been creative, I struggled for a long
time to find focus, to find the medium that could satisfy my desire to create.
Not to brag, but artistically I can pretty much do what ever I put my mind to,
and I’m always looking to expand my skill set and arsenal of
tools.
In 2004 I was asked if I wanted to build a biker magazine
for some big shot t-shirt vendors, it was supposed to be kind of an event guide
that they would distribute at all the major bike rallies that they went to. I
said yes I could do that, and proceeded to build the best damn biker magazine I
could. I did all the graphic design, photography,
did the interviews and collected all the content, all the while I was not
getting paid at this point, it was one of those deals that if it works out you’ll
get paid. So when I had the finished
product, I said here you go, and they wanted me to go out and sell the ads
too! At that point I was like screw
that! So I changed the name to Renegade Biker and made it my own.
It was then that I realized I had found the perfect outlet
for my creativity, a magazine about all, the cool shit I love, motorcycles, hot
rods, and beautiful women, plus all the cool creative possibilities, the
graphic design, web design, photography, illustrations, cartoons, and more the
possibilities are endless.
To cut to the chase, I've ben publishing Renegade for about
8 years now, it’s about all the things I love and
I have been doing the entire magazine all on my own, the graphic design,
layout, photography, the website, going to shows and events, selling ads, sleeping
in my truck to deliver magazines, on and on. I have done this all on my own
with very little help and certainly no financial support.
So here I am sitting in my van frantically working on the
final touches of my website about to launch my newest digital issue, and to
announce my Zombie Apocalypse tour! My
plan is to travel the country hunting down the coolest hot rods, custom
motorcycles, in old barns and garages, and pin-up girls for photo shoots,
interviews with interesting people in the custom culture scene. To be published
in my magazine and on my websites, Plus hitting up cool events, rallies and
concerts to cover and promote my new digital magazine and to produce a
documentary film and photo book on the custom culture I’m
calling ‘”Custom Culture Circus”.
And you can come along with me and experience the custom
culture through my creative lens. Hope you dig it!
