As a young artist, I was fortunate enough to interact with many people who played a significant role in shaping the Australian contemporary art world.
During the late ‘70s, I studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne Australia. It was there that I had the opportunity to meet people like Fred Williams, Roger Kemp, and my drawing teacher Noel Counihan. These and other lecturing artists, including Gareth Sansom, Paul Partos and Allan Mittelman demonstrated to me what it meant to have an energetic response to the creative process.
In terms of my own desires and ambitions when I was young, I didn’t really see at making as being a part of my life, or at least as an integral part of my life. I just enjoyed my youth, I enjoyed sport and I enjoyed the usual things of a young boy growing up and didn’t really have a big picture of what it was that I wanted to become later in life.
Because one of my early girlfriends was involved with the diving industry through her father being a diver, I developed a leaning towards the field of marine biology; this interested me to no end. I anticipated going to university and learning how to become a marine biologist, which I anticipated would involve me spending a significant amount of time diving in beautiful locations.
