After marring my wife in the early 1990 ’ s , she took me to Europe for the first time . She had lived in Germany for a few years when her father was in the Army . This is when I picked up the camera again years after my photography classes in high school . During this time , my focus was largely black and white photography , much of it cityscapes . The historic European cities with their intricate , old architecture and cobblestone streets were hard to resist . I came home from that first trip and started earnestly pursuing photography in my spare time . To this day , I use my camera ( digital now of course ) every day to inform my work . I am inspired by my surroundings and usually walk every day to capture nature and the world around me . These walks are an important part of my creative process and where most of my ideas begin to take form . Trees , texture in nature , reflections in water , sunrise , sunset , flower petals , dew drops ; these all influence my work .
On a return trip to Europe , we spent a week with my Aunt Wanda ( my father ’ s sister ). She had married a German national and made her home in southern Germany where she still lives . She was and still is to this day an incredibly talented painter and ceramicist . That trip was a feast for my senses . She opened up a whole new world of opportunity for me in the way I looked at my creativity . She lives it every day of her life , whether it is simply drawing while she is sitting having coffee , or sculpting or painting almost every day , or even journaling . She also does not take herself too seriously . She is creative because it makes her happy and fulfills a basic instinct in herself . What others think of it she does not care . She has been my primary mentor and I have visited her often since that first trip and it is like going home for me .