It all started in 1988. Actually, more like 1984. I was working in the Chicago area as the music director for a large Episcopal church. I've been a musician all my life but I am fascinated with methods of communication -- medieval writing and calligraphy (note the manuscript on the wall), book arts, printing, typography, layout, and design -- all kinds of art, really, which is ultimately about communication. I was also an accomplished photographer and had some understanding of the power of imagery. At the time, my career was focused on music, specifically sacred music, one of the most powerful non-visual tools of communication. I was lucky because while I was working in music I was also unaware that I was learning a second career in graphic arts, by producing newsletters,
concert programs, publicity posters, ads -- communications for the church and music department., and I developed a close relationship with local printers and began absorbing aspects of that craft.
The Mac was born in 1984. My daughter was born in 1988. In those four years the church had acquired a Mac Plus and a small offset press and took much of its communications in-house. So I learned design, printing and publishing. I was hooked.
Four more years of musical work led to two more years of teaching as a contract computer trainer on corporate campuses around Chicago, teaching software packages including design and publishing on Unix, PC, and Mac platforms. Family opportunities brought us to Atlanta where we have been ever since. I have been able to exercise and broaden all my skills in both the visual AND the non-visual arts by working independently as a professional photographer, employed by a printing company as a graphic designer and prepress specialist -- and by working as a church music director again, and conducting a local Atlanta choir for eleven years. It's been quite a journey. But that’s what life is, isn’t it?We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot
