My mother got a divorce and my oldest brother moved out. Soon after, when I was 19 we moved. I had gone through several bands, several jobs and two cars. At 22 years now without a car due to a wreck, I had found a Job nearby and found a ride and saved enough money to buy a house and Lived there for a year and bought a piano and wrote scores of music. I could not sustain the mortgage payment on my own so I decided to rent it out with a positive cash flow of $100 a month. I went to computer school after a long internal battle between arts school or this, looking back I see now it was a mistake. But I got my degree. Shortly thereafter I met my future wife, she moved in with me to my small apartment of two rooms, 1 bath and a small old style 50's kitchen in the north east of Philadelphia in a town known as Willowgrove. I soon had tenant problems and was forced to evict them and move in to fix a broken bedroom floor in my rental. Geri my girl friend moved to my house with me and lived through the reconstruction of the bed room. Money became tight and I could not find a job that paid well enough to cover my expenses. Then was the best news of my life. Geri my soon to be wife was Pregnant. I was floored, I could not believe it. I wasn't ready. I wasn't scared but I knew it would be a task to prepare a house for a baby. We worked and planned and did all the things wrong that we wanted to do Right. And through the years that followed We were now a family of three. I had become a father overnight as it seemed it went so fast. I went into the maintenance field working on machines and developing a taste for programmable logic controllers and began a new fascination for technology. More babies came. I am now a father of two boys, Corey and Brian and Going from job to job in a harsh economy I found myself lost, searching and longing for the person I was. I am now 46, a Father of 5 boys, Corey, Brian, Tyler, Aaron and Dylan. I had sold my small house and bought a bigger colonial with a two car Garage, four bedrooms, three baths and I had good jobs for 10 years and a beautiful house in the suburbs with my beautiful wife Geri and a dog and a cat. And money problems you would not believe. I have not painted for 20 years and I wonder If I will ever get the chance again. I had always thought, what if I had chose art school over computer school would my life be better? But that was a waste of time. Knowing that I am an artist took a long time to realize what that means for me. Owning up to the responsibility for myself to continue learning to improve my skill In the different arts I am capable of so I can grow from sharing my art with others. Accepting of who I am is easy for me because I have always known I would go back to art. I had hoped I would have a steady income to feel more relaxed about the creative process. But without the drive to create an income from it I might not have the drive to create. Like those around me like my wife and my adult family, they are concerned of the facts that there might not be a sufficient income for my family, as well as I. Somehow I am on this path now and I can only thank God for this opportunity. All I can do is try my hardest to succeed. As far as my adult family they can have their reservations about it, but even after death it's still my life. I am an artist.
