ARTIST BIO

The most memorable classes for me back in high school, some 30 years ago, were the electives. As I was drawn to art and woodshop, my teachers fostered my interest by allowing me to work in those spaces outside of regular class time such as during study hall and after school.

My parents supported my endeavors and helped me purchase a bandsaw, a router, and a lathe. My love for woodworking had begun. Soon I was busy making signs, bandsaw boxes, and wooden bowls while sharpening my craft with every new project. To this day I still have several of the beginner pieces that I made during those high school days.

After high school, I went on to college and earned degrees in Parks & Recreation and Outdoor Education. My woodworking was paused for about 20+  years while I pursued my career in social work and adventure & wilderness therapy. My focus during this time was not to be creative but to help adolescents with severe struggles of aggression, abandonment, drug use, stealing, and dropping out of school. This career, while at times stressful was quite rewarding. It allowed me to have an exciting and somewhat transient lifestyle to which I got to visit all 50 United States.

In 2012, I began teaching Basic Woodworking at a school for at-risk boys. For the next five years, I got to revisit my love for woodworking while at the same time allowing my students the same creative process that my teachers gave me all those years ago. During this time I began making and selling projects from my small workshop at home.

Then, in 2018, I launched Rivertown Woodgrain. The name comes from the small historic town of Franklin, Pennsylvania. Franklin sits along the banks of the Allegheny River. “Woodgrain” is the beauty found in the grains of the local hardwoods that I love to use in my projects.