Joined CartoonVegas: 2014

Art Heroes: Greg Thompson, Boris Vellejo and Julie Bell, Luis Royo, Maxfield Parrish, Brian Froud, John Pitre, Chuck Jones, and Disney

What do you love about caricatures? I love the “extreme” caricatures. That style that people associate caricatures with because they’ve seen it in Mad Magazine or a “How to” book. When people have extraordinary characteristics is when my job is the most fun. I love just really playing with my style. Especially when I see influences from other artist’s styles that I like to incorporate into my own.

For Struggling Artists: I was once told by the artist that I looked up to the most, “Don’t pursue art. There’s no money to be made in it.” How wrong my father was. My first job was on Fremont Street doing (what else?) caricatures. At age 15 I was the youngest professional caricature artist in the state of Nevada. And, I’ve been doing them on and off since then. I am now an established artist at Cartoon Vegas, Stratosphere, and am making far more than I was at most minimum wage jobs I’ve tried. So, my advice to aspiring artists is this. “Do what you love and love what you do. Keep trying and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t!”