I'm a full-time artist whose studio is in the storefront of a former Polish sausage shop on Chicago's northwest side. My primary medium is encaustic but I also work with a wide variety of other materials -- sticks, plaster, paper, clay. Besides painting I do public art commissions and founded The Corner Project, a community-development initiative to revive three blocks of the vintage, working-class main street where my studio is located.

I have an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MPA in public art policy from the University of Washington. My undergraduate degree is in ceramics from the Indiana University. Based on a class I developed and taught at SAIC, I wrote a book called The Artist’s Guide to Public Art: How to Find and Win Commissions, now in its second printing. To relax, I like to watch videos about potters, especially those whose studios are in the English countryside.