ARTIST AND AUTHOR

I grew up on the Jersey Shore many years before it became infamous on MTV. In college, I majored in journalism and wrote a column for the campus newspaper before getting kicked out for bad grades (among other offences). Disillusioned with the conservative education system of the era, I took a cross country road trip to Haight-Ashbury in 1969, hoping to become a famous musician.

In my first illustrated e-book, Jersey Goes West, I describe the music scene at the Fillmore West, an unpleasant visit to the Woodstock festival, and how I witnessed a man being killed at the Stones' disastrous concert at the Altamont Racetrack.

After abandoning the hippie scene for yoga, I learned meditation in 1970 from a venerable Indian swami who took me on tour as his personal assistant. I accompanied the yogi to Yale, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania, where my mentor was designated a "Scholar in Residence”.

When we returned to the West Coast, the swami convinced me to sell my beloved VW Bus and buy a plane ticket to India to study with HIS guru. I didn’t want to go at first, but I eventually gave in to his wishes although I was only 23 years old at the time and had never been outside the country before.

In my second illustrated e-memoir, Undercover in India, I tell how I lived at my guru’s ashram for a year, went underground during martial law, and climbed the Himalayas in search of a mysterious one-armed yogi. After leaving India, I returned to the U.S. and graduated from Philadelphia College of Art, majoring in illustration and graphic design.

In 1976, I moved to Honolulu, worked in Waikiki Beach and had a succssful business as a fingernail artist for twenty years. Following the events described in my third e-memoir, The Fingernail King, I took a six-year gig teaching writing and design at the University of Hawaii. I also taught portrait drawing at the Honolulu Academy of Art for another six years.

During my time working at the museum, one of my paintings was featured in the Academy Award-winning film The Descendants, starring George Clooney. (see the section of this site on the Academy Award.) I moved to Florida in 2009 to care for my aged mother until she passed at the age of 103. I have been practicing meditation and yoga every day for the last fifty-five years.