Raised in southeast Minnesota, along the Mississippi River, the artist grew up in a community of German and Norwegian immigrant craftsman that held great value in quality of work and commitment to one's endeavors. Trained at the University of Wisconsin, in River Falls in Fine Art, with a concentration in Sculpture. Then later trained under a Minnesota Master gunsmith, in the field of metalwork, the artist was able to forge together the classical study of art with the craftsmanship of metal- smithing. He continued his study of the craft of traditional blacksmithing while he worked at open-air museum an the outskirts of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This provided the artist with an opportunity to explore deeply the old skills of metalworking, while fine tuning his own skills. Initially the artist's artwork was heroic sized figurative pieces, but later, the artist moved toward smaller scaled works, as well as moved to abstract, as his skills became fine tuned. Later adopting Islamic Calligraphy as one of his primary subject matters in this new form — Sculpture. Whenever possible the artist utilizes recycled materials, to further promote stewardship & environmental awareness.