About Me

My history as a professional artist goes back as far as 1993. I have coordinated life-drawing classes at the University of Wisconsin, taught drawing fundamentals at Madison College, hosted Paint Night, animated short films, created concept art for video games, made vector art, designed woodblock prints, logos, and t-shirts, but nothing is more permanent than engraving metal.

To make a custom pet tag, I use my vector skills to make a clean line drawing in Adobe Animate. The image is printed onto paper, then cut down to the size of the tag. I use a 1.5 inch brass, or stainless steel tag, and sand the surface. I spray it with fixative and wait until it's tacky. The image is burnished down to the tag. I dab the paper with nail polish remover. When I lift off the paper, the ink remains stuck to the metal. After the transfer, I secure the tag into a vice and begin engraving. The tool is like a metal pen with compressed air flowing through it. When I press the foot to pedal, the pen vibrates, carving metal out of the tag. Think of it like scratchboard, where the strokes are permenent and cannot be erased. Once engraved, the art is timeless. That image would last 10,000 years.