I grew up in a small country town (Crawford Texas), population 377 at the time, and when I left, they had to change the sign to 376. I wanted to see the world, so I decided to join the Air Force. I remember the code the recruiter put on the form 46230. I did not have a clue about what that meant until I arrived at Lackland AFB San Antonio. Where they indoctrinated us into the Air Force with many tests and some crazy questions like, " have you thought about killing your mother," or" Do you like setting things on fire" to which I answered "No." After passing these tests, I was informed my job would be loading bombs on the B52. In shock and mad, I went to the bathroom and found an empty stall and cried. All I could think of was going back and causing some serious pain to that recruiter. If I would have known, I would have answered yes to all those crazy questions. Shipped out to Colorado, I discovered that they had too many people in the loading bombs career field and those who wanted to change careers could put down ten bases and ten careers - I was one of the first that volunteered. After learning a new career in California, I served a tour in Japan. This is where I first started drawing. Missing home and not understanding the language, I found myself staying in the barrack listening to music - I started sketching. I developed a hunger to learn more about drawing. So, I checked out books of various artists from the library like Norman Rockwell, Ruben and Boris. I tried different mediums, watercolor, acrylic, oil and pencil. After a year, I guess I was getting better at drawing when I found people pulling my artwork out of the trash.