As long as I can remember, I’ve been drawing pictures. Even as early as 1st grade, when the teachers asked what everyone wanted to be when they grew up, to the chorus of the other kids’ “Fireman!”, “Doctor!”, and “President!” I always added “Artist!” In elementary school I filled whole notebooks with drawings of rampaging giant monsters attacking tanks and helicopters. By junior high I even hand-made a short animated cartoon using a few hundred sheets of looseleaf notebook paper and my parents’ old super 8 movie camera. But it wasn’t until I went to the High School for Performing and Visual Arts that I started putting in the time and effort needed to really polish my skills.

I graduated in 1983 and went on to college, majoring in (of course) fine arts and illustration. I transferred to UT at Austin because I found out that there were openings in the Daily Texan for student cartoonists. I did get into the school paper with a fun little daily comic strip. Looking back now, I can see how amateurish those first strips were, but it was a great learning experience. Doing a daily also taught me a lot about the pressures of deadlines – something I wasn’t very familiar with as an art student. Eventually, I got into hot water with the student editors (it’s a long story, but essentially I made them look foolish) and was blacklisted. I got back into the paper with another strip for another year by collaborating on a strip with my buddy Kevin and having him sign his name to the work!

I eventually graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 1987 and discovered that in the real world no one cared about a Fine Arts degree. For many years I worked at whatever jobs I could find – data entry for the IRS, waiting tables, even a (mercifully brief) stint as a dancing blackjack dealer in a teenage night club. The less said about that, the better.

During that time I occasionally managed to land a job as an illustrator, most notably as the interior artist for two superhero RPG game supplements. But I soon realized that digital graphics and photo retouching were slowly taking over the traditional market and that I had better adapt or perish. I made a move into print production, beginning with working as an illustrator and a layout designer for a pair of technical magazines, moving on to do the same thing at the Houston Chronicle for about a year, and then finally working at a print shop doing digital prepress (word to the wise: NEVER believe the photos in a real estate ad!)

Around 1995, some friends of mine started a company called Net Explorer that designed websites and provided web solutions for e-business, which was just in its infancy. I came on board as the company’s production artist and begin learning all about the wonders of HTML. We started out with just six guys sitting around someone’s mom’s kitchen table, and within a few years of mergers and expansion we found ourselves part of a fast-growing company with over a hundred employees in NYC, Houston, and California. The name changed, first to “Nuforia”, and then to “Red Sky Interactive” (and almost became “Raildown Gumbo” in between before someone wised up). Sounds like the American Dream – but unfortunately, like so many other start-ups in the tech bubble of the ’90s, ultimately the company failed when reality set in. It was an educational experience in many ways, however.

After the demise of Red Sky, I went on to work at Savage Design Group starting in January of 2001, where I specialized in website design, production and multimedia. That went well until the triple whammy of 9/11, the economic slowdown, and the Enron/Dynegy scandals. SDG (and its very conscientious owner Paula Savage) really tried their best to keep us all on staff despite the slowdown, but by April 2002 finally had to start cutting back and I was laid off (last hired, first fired).

After that, I continued in the field of web design and online multimedia, alternating between stints of self-employment and working for another web design start-up, Rockport Solutions. It was during this time that I began to refer to my free-lance work under the name Web Chameleon and built the first version of this website. For the last two years, my free-lance business has been on a back-burner because I have full-time employment as the sole web designer for AmeriSciences, an MLM nutraceuticals company. I’ve been enjoying my work there, but miss cartooning and plan to use this new site to explore the fun side of art again.

My bio wouldn’t be complete unless I also mentioned that in 1997, I unexpectedly met the woman of my dreams while minding my own business at the Texas Renaissance Festival. That is a story in itself! It was love at first sight for both of us (fortunately, or I would probably have run foul of the state’s stalking laws). Jamie and I were married exactly a year later, also at the Ren Fest, and we go back every year to privately renew our vows at the chapel there. Jamie has been a steady source of love and support, both in my career and my personal life. I would not have made it this far without her, and I can’t imagine my life without her in it.