Although I did well in college I found myself at odds with the culture of academia. I loved and respected the world of fine art but am incapable of dedicating my life to the pursuit of a single-minded career path. And searching for a satisfying personal visual language meant years of dead-end jobs to pay the rent. A different path was indicated.

In the early '80s I turned to publishing, pausing briefly at the fringes of the burdgeoning comic book industry, then returning to school for training in commercial art. I began a long career in art direction, publication design, commercial art, photography and illustration.