I was fortunate at the age of 12 to have an opportunity to begin working in construction.  

A close friend's father had a remodeling project under way, and I loved working on it.  Between that and others I kept myself busy most weekends and summers.  It was the experience of working on the roof that got me.  The structure was composed of four hyperbolic parabolas - it fascinated me and has struck with me to this day.  The concept of a hyperbolic parabola is simple enough: a compound curve formed by straight lines.  It appeared at first, quite by accident really, in the backs of my earlier rocking chairs and continued in the same twisted compound curve to the fronts of my desks.  In my senior year of high school, we were given a month off to work in the community.  It was the opportunity I was waiting for.  I met Art Espenet Carpenter in 1970 and was transfixed by his shop and his work.  Setting up a shop in my bedroom I began making furniture with whatever tools I could find. Espenet was of the belief that if someone was motivated enough they would learn what they needed as they went along.  Being that I was 19 and already knew everything, I wasn't afraid of taking on this challenge.  An early desk shows this.  In fact, I deliberately made projects as difficult as possible, a habit I still have to some degree today. Espenet was very practical in his advice to me in those years.  He said it was fine that I was making furniture, but I had better pay close attention to who was going to buy it since I would soon run out of space for it.  Another pearl of wisdom, one I hold to with great appreciation, is this, "The mark of a good craftsman is how well he covers up his mistakes."

During the 70's I was developing techniques to achieve designs I had in mind.  In doing that I let the technique dictate the designs.  I also became involved in the idea of making multiple pieces in a series, in an attempt to make the production process more efficient.  I used more complex jigs and templates, and improved the quality of the pieces.  Sales were generated by doing shows and selling through galleries in San Francisco and Hawaii (see resume) I also did my first weekend seminars at my shop through the Baulines Craftsman Guild and then UC Extension.

In the early 80's I I made a few kitchens - learning a very different craft than furniture making.  By 1987 I was drawn to Nicaragua in part by political and moral convictions.  There I built houses, then furniture, and finally bee hives for a CARE funded project.  During my first year there I met my wife Terry, who, like myself, has a life long love of working with her hands.  Terry still works in the shop on a regular basis and encourages me towards more artistic aspects of woodworking.

In 1988 I  formed a partnership with two other likeminded woodworkers and started Geronimo Woodworks.  We focused on kitchens and other custom casework and "parts for houses."  I was living in Nicaragua until 1991 and came to work part time between '88-'91.  When we returned to California permanently, I returned to the shop and Geronimo Woodworks full time.  The ten years we worked together taught me much about running a business, as well as standard cabinet making practices.  You see, by this time I was older and didn't know everything anymore, so was quite able to learn that there are actually some standard construction techniques that work very well.  In late 1999 my partners went out on their own and I bought the business back.

Since then I have been doing kitchens and have returned to the art and craft of furniture design.