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Biography
I developed a love of working with clay as a small child. When my mother would bring home a package of plastelina clay from the 5 & 10 store, it would entertain me for days. I would make all kinds of creations from my imagination. I made knights and the dragons they would fight, spacemen, holiday figurines and the animals I saw around me.

When I was ten, I started to visit my older brother in Philadelphia for summer vacation. These visits would provide me a few weeks exposed to artwork and culture -so different from the rural farm country. Occasionally, I was lucky enough to visit the sculpture studios of Miles and Generalis located a few blocks away from my brother's house. I didnít even know there was an option to be a sculptor as your "job" until I met them. They would let me watch the work going on in the studio and encourage my creations in clay. It was so exciting. I tried to soak up every minute of it since it would be a very long time until the next brief visit.

I learned that both Tom Miles and Alex Generalis had attended PCA – Philadelphia College of Art, (PCA) and majored in industrial design. This inspired me to look into PCA's industrial design program for myself. At the end of my junior year of high school I made a trip to PCA for a portfolio review, and to my delight, I was accepted. In 1985, I moved to Philadelphia and attended PCA. I discovered that industrial design is basically sculpture for things we use everyday. It played not only into my love of working in three-dimensions, but into my fascination for how things worked.

I designing several pieces of medical equipment including a blood analyzer and a wheelchair. I worked at a XEROX research facility as a designer and model-maker.

Later, due to job market demands, I switched to graphic design and computer illustration. As a result of these varied jobs, I have accumulated a wide variety of skills and experience.

I have drafted and modeled ironwork (in clay) at Philadelphia's historic Samuel Yellin Ironworks, illustrated complex stealth helicopter mechanics for Boeing, and created branding identities for clients in all sectors of the business and high-tech community.

In recent years, I have been lucky enough to refine my career once again. My focus is again on art and sculpture. I am very excited about what the future might hold –what project might be next, and what I have yet to learn.

(Above) "Technology Gangster"
Clip from CNN coverage of Cyber-Security conference 2005
Illustration by Christopher Erney

Resume
Please click image for a larger printable version of my resume.

(Above) "Automated Heterogenius Assay Analyzer"
DuPont's previous version of this analyzer was a wedge-shaped box. I made the pumps (at the far left) visible and easy for the operator to see. I positioned the wash solution bottle next to the pumps, and pulled out the bottle slightly so the fluid level could be monitored with just a glance. The arcs in the lid echo the swing of the robot arm over the round carrousel of test samples. This form-fitting lid also enabled the analyzer much more energy efficient; shortening the warm-up time and speeding the testing time. The main case was of molded urethane foam for durability, ease of cleaning and low production cost. The inside was divided into two chambers for safety, one for the electrical parts including the robot arm, the other for devices that handle liquids.