| Howdy, My name is Walt. I was born in Panama City, Panama on November 10th, 1951. I'm an Army brat that's seen a little bit of the world from traveling from base to base for most of my childhood till I was a teenager. I got involved with art by entering a Humane Society poster contest in the 5th grade. I drew a horse and got honorable mention for it. A little feather in my cap. My teacher, Mrs. Serrano, sent me a book on "How to Draw Horses" by Walter Foster and I was on my way. I was living in Colorado, so it was horse heaven for me. I used to hang out at the stables and just observe. The natural scenery and wildlife in the area was inspiring and still is for me. I love mountainous landscapes and occasionally travel via Google Earth, back to those beautiful places. San Francisco's School systems nurtured me in the arts during my middle school years while my father was stationed in Korea. He was a computer programmer in the Army back in the days of those large IBM mainframes. He tried to encourage me in that direction, but I never had the foresight to see that it would be so in the future. I took an Art Instruction Schools correspondence course in Harrisburg, Pa. during High School and was a member of the school's art squad. We designed a mural with an environmental theme that was publicly executed in front of the "Federal Building" in downtown Harrisburg. There was media coverage and controversy surrounding my design's theme of environmental degradation. It made the news that an irate person that disagreed with the theme of the rendering vandalized the work by putting gray paint over the American flag as it was displayed in stress. I had my work on PBS for provocative subject matter and missed the whole broadcast. I won a scholarship to Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1971 and dropped out around Christmas time because I was always broke. I worked on campus for the late Rudolph Staffel, a Ceramicist whose work is on display at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. I mixed clay for his classes but made barely minimum wage. It wasn't even enough to do my laundry at times. After leaving school I became manual labor's son working at manpower and janitorial gigs with a dappling of groundskeeping and snow removal. My break came after dropping out of Harrisburg Area Community College. I did Media Support there and worked on their "Film Catalog". I got a job at Standard Register Company in York, Pa. as a Press Helper and worked my way up to Press Operator. They knew of my art ability and asked me to do some safety related cartooning with animals. That's when I drew my first Eagle for their T-Shirt promoting quality control. I was layed off there after a couple yrs. and was called back 4 hours later in what they called the shortest layoff in history. I wrote an editorial in the local paper about the 3 Mile Island Accident that was critical of the way it was handled at the time. I didn't know that some of the upper management were friendly to the nuclear industry and was subsequently laid off again for my honesty. They were cited for environmental violations because I reported a chemical leak to my boss from corroding barrels of acetone. I ended up working for NCR in Mount Joy, Pa. for almost 20 years on second and third shift. The plant closed in 2003 and here I am. |
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Try drawing with your eyes closed, you will be shocked when you open them.
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♥1gallery| ₪2*DimagerDesign ☺~badge-gallery St♂ck ~dA-naturist٭
A very interesting path you've taken, I must say.
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