The story of my life is the story of my evolution as an artist. I have come a long way since the beginning and yet my craft remains inexorably tied to the circumstances of my birth in 1976 on Miami Beach to musically inclined parents. They encouraged my creative side as far back as I can remember, encouraging the various art classes I took throughout my early life. Deciding that I wished to make my art my career, I enrolled in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and graduated in 2006 with a BA in Interior Design.
My photography skills are self-taught and were originally only utilized to complement my interior design studies. There I attempted to support my 3D renderings by incorporating images into them; my ability to see art in terms of the underpinning lines, shapes, and colors first really emerged at this time. However, it was not until a vacation in 2008 that I realized that photography could be more than a mere hobby. While visiting the Pacific Coast I took a black and white photograph of the Golden Gate, entirely still as a recreational matter, that was good enough to seriously catch the attention of a co-worker. So, I now wondered, how good could I really be at this if I started to take it seriously? I decided to find out.
I purchased my first SLR camera in 2009 and began my self-education in earnest, taking as many photo opportunities as I could with as wide a variety of subject matter as possible. In the summer of 2011, however, my mother passed away. Coming to terms with her death was the most challenging experience of my life but it also made me aware that I finally had to make a decision about my own future. It was photography and art not interior design that made me happy and I resolved to make it my full-time career.
In 2012 I would actualize this resolution with concrete milestones. In honor of my mother and my decision to do what I love in life, for better or worse, I tattooed the words Vita Di Amore on my left wrist. That philosophy remains the trademark of my artwork, photography that captures the moments in life that are too beautiful to forget. This is, for me, a thematic beauty, encapsulating coastal, contemporary, vintage, art deco, bright, and natural elements. Or, to put it more simply, my Vita Di Amore art is about the feeling I get when I am on the beach, the beach of South Florida where I was born and have never left. The coastlines, colors, architecture, and foliage of my home have always flown throughout my art. Throughout my development as an artist, that has never changed; it is only my ability to express the happiness that the beach brings me to others that has improved.
My growth as an artist continues; there is so much that I still have to learn, so much experience left to acquire. Art is a tenuous profession; one needs to be driven and master their craft if they want to make a consistent living at it. So say the words etched forever into my wrist, a testament not just to the past and to the life of my mother which will never be forgotten but to the future where I will never forget what makes my own life worth living.
