Duffy Fortner – One Cool Chick!

I did an interview with Duffy Fortner. She works at Red Octopus Tattoos, 1654 Solomons Island Road. Prince Frederick, Md. 20678. Studio number 410-535-9095. Walk-ins are welcome but for her, personally, appointments only.

Her parents actually started the business in 1992. When she was growing up in the tattoo world (like me ). She kind of knew she wanted to tattoo when he was growing up, but when she was getting close to graduating high school was when she realized that she wanted it to be her career.

She tattooed around the age of 8 (I tattooed my mom at 6 and 8). She hooked up all of her barbie and baby dolls with some pretty rad tattoos. At the age of 16 was when she started to learn for real, and she tattooed a lot of her friends. They didn’t care that she was learning, they were just happy to get free tattoos.  Between  her mom, Cousin Andi, and some other artists at the shop helping her out, was well on her way.

Right now her costumers are going big. Sleeves, rib pieces, whole backs and all type of designs. Flowers are super popular for her right now. She LOVES to do them. She is kind of known  for a lot of different things. She has learned a little bit of every type of style. So, she can make sure she can please everybody. Mostly, big, bubbly, and colorful is what she is super into. ( Just like MY mom is into!!!!)

The things that influence her work the most is the need to make everything look perfect. She thinks the most important part of tattooing is doing the best job every time, no matter what. Someone might come in and want to get a tattoo  that maybe she is not really into or crazy about, but is is not her tattoo, and that person came to her because  they trust her that she will do the best possible job. (Awesome!)

She is constantly learning things everyday. Whether she teaches herself or learn from other artists. She thinks it is important that no matter how long you have been tattooing, you should still be willing, and open to learn. She is also fortunate to travel and work with other artists from all over, and it’s from them she picks up most of her techniques.

She will NOT do gang related or racial/prejudice tattoos. She does NOT promote it so she won’t definitely doesn’t feel comfortable doing them. She also doesn’t do tattoo in the ear.( Personally to me I think that MUST be hurtful in the EAR!!!!!!!!!) She is not a fan, they never look that good once they have aged a little bit, and she does  definitely wants her work to look good over time. There are some other things that she personally like, but she will keep those to herself because after all, it’s not her tattoo, she is just the artist that is going to make it look good.

She gets most of her stuff done in her shop. She works with these people everyday, so she trusts them the most. But like she said before, she does travel around working shows, so it’s hard to resist getting by some of these people that she has admired through magazines for so long. The very first influence she ever discovered was Jime’ Litwalk. His style made her want to work as hard as she can to be that awesome too. This time in her career one of her biggest influences is Jeff Ensminger. She can’t wrap her head around his tattoos. The smooth, clean work. The overall design. They’re absolutely so ridiculously amazing it makes her sick.

She loves being able to create and original everyday. She loves making people happy. ( So does my mom!! Hey, would you take a look at that. My mom and Duffy have a lot in common. That must be why my mom raves about Duffy so much!) Duffy loves meeting new people all the time. Not everybody gets to make their hobby into their career. What annoys her the most about this business is that just anyone thinks they can be a tattoo artist. There are so many people just tattooing out of their house and messing people up. She just sits back, watches them come and go, and she’ll be there to fix their messed up tattoos when they’re gone.

Her ”dream” client is someone who sits and relaxes and lets her do her job with no issues. Someone who comes in with an idea and pretty much gives her free range from there. She said that she is lucky to have clients like that everyday.

She has never worked in any other art media, as a job. She does all other types of things involving art, mostly for charity events and things like that. There are other types of art training that she would love to have. She said that she is very interested in photography and graphic design.

For fun she said and I quote, ”What’s that??” ( She is just kidding, would you guys calm down because she does know what I mean by that.) She has business hours everyday. She has a boyfriend and a big family that she loves to spend time with them. Usually you can find her outside, when she isn’t working. She loves the outdoors.

World domination would be good for her but she said that being a tattoo artist is good enough for her. Well it might not be world domination but I think you Rule and so does my mom!!

Make sure you check out more of Duffy’s work at the link below!!! www.redoctopustattoos.com

Add her on Facebook :     www.facebook.com/#/profile.php?id=1302133052

Jesse Smith

I did an interview with Jesse Smith. He works at Ghostsprint Gallery. It’s at 220 W. Broad St. Richmond, VA 23220. Phone number is 804-344-1557. The website is WWW.JESSESMITHTATTOOS.COM. The hours are Tues-Sat from 12-10. They work by appointment only.

He met this fella who was tattooing out of his house in Newport News, VA. They used to hang out and draw a lot together. Jesse eventually asked him if he could teach Jesse how to make a ghetto gun, that he could do a tattoo. He said he wasn’t really on planning on becoming a tattoo artist, which I really don’t believe that but it’s the truth. He just thought it would be cool to put a piece of his artwork on somebody that would last for the rest of their life. After his first piece, he had people lined up at his front door waiting to get tattooed by me. Not because it was good, but because it was free. About a month later, he purchased his first professional machine. He spent about a year trying to put together a decent portfolio, and soon made his rounds to all the local tattoo shops to see if he could get a job as a professional. Initially, he got rejected by all them. But six months later, he tried again and eventually got scooped up.

He learned how to tattoo by spending a year and a half tattooing out of his house. During that first year and a half a lot of what he learned came from trial and error, but it wasn’t until he landed his first job in a professional studio that he really picked up solid knowledge. He learned more in 2 months working out of a professional studio, then he did in the whole year and a half working out of his house.

Lately, he has been lucky enough to attract some really motivated collectors. A lot of them are really open to letting him do pretty much whatever he’d like which makes his job a lot more fun. Most people tend to group with him in with the ”New School” style, however he really thinks a lot of artists who are grouped into that particular style have passed the stigma that, that particular style encompass’. He likes to think that he would be grouped into the Low-Brow movement.

When he first started tattooing, he was mostly influenced by the ”New School” movement. The artist who he most influenced by earlier in his career were Tim Biedron, Jime’ Litwalk, Chucho, Cleen Rock, and Gunnar.

He has been using a lot of rotary machines lately. He just picked up his Swashdrive about 3 months ago and he loves it. This past month, he was newly exposed to Neo Tat Machines and he honestly think that between them the Swashdrives he’ll probably never use a coil machine again.

He tries to stay away from Japanese theme tattoos, tribal, black and gray, traditional tattoos, and anything that require any sort Of reference. There are already a ton of artists out there who are awesome at these styles.

The tattoo artists who do his work are done by his good friend Jason Stephen and Greg Agner. As far as artists that he admires he has got a ton of them listed under his links section of his Website. But if he were to narrow it down to 10 then they would be:
1) Greg “Crayola” Simkins : Not only for paving the way for us character driven artists, but for also being such a great guy. Greg has opened my mind up a bit more and allowed me to feel confident in decisions I make in my art.

2) Gunnar: The way he captivates a, not so cute, situation in a cute way.

3) Tim Biedron: His bent perspectives on his characters as well as his original color combinations have really made me feel comfortable with the fact that I like to place eyes in places where they don’t belong.

4) Joe Sorren: There are no boundaries with Joe. If he feels like stretching one arm out longer then the other or squishing a face in the middle of a big head, he’ll do it. All while capturing a rather innocent feel. All his creatures/characters seemed deformed, but they carry themselves with confidence as if they aren’t concerned about how people view them.

5) Jason Stephan: Aside from being one of my best friends, Jason’s attention to detail and overall precision are unmatched. Not only is he an inspirational artist, but he’s also one of the realest people I know. Whenever I have questioned myself as an artist/tattoo artist Jason has been there to encourage me and keep my head straight. All of his goofy characters reflect his personality and he is one of the most solid artists that I know.

6) Jime Litwalk: Ultra clean artist with an uber cute style. I’ve always been sucker for simplicity.

7) Tony Ciavarro: Tony inspires me on many levels. Of course his art is precise and super clean, but his work ethic and business sense is impeccable. And to top it all off he is probably one of the most humble artists I know.

8) Michael Hussar: A super talented individual who captures the true essence of evil in all of his paintings. His stylized realism is something that I aspire to add to my art.

9) Scribe: Scribe creates these imaginary worlds/scenarios that at first glance seem to be kind of meaningless to the viewer, but as you look deeper, you see that the characters are extremely consumed by their situation. It’s kind of like a simple version of your everyday battles. His simplistic style, along with his ambitious ideas, have inspired the direction in which I have gone with my art.

10) Toast: Ever since I first started following his work, back in ’95, this guys kept me in awe. Everything he does is just mind blowing. His attention to light source and his ability to tweak just about anything, have truly laid a foundation in my mind on how to create an innovative character.

The best thing of being a tattoo artist is that it’s pretty laid back and you’re pretty much your own boss. The worst thing of being a tattoo artist (to him) is that it’s hard to draw a line between your business life and your personal life. He pretty much works all day everday.

His perfect ”dream” client is someone who comes in with super high ambitions and is willing to go as big as they can. He also enjoys clients who come in with concepts and cool ways to illutrate those concepts.

He said that he tried to get a little painting in a little last week. He mostly works in oil, but sometimes dabble in other mediums (spray paint, color pencils, and acrylic). As far as ”formal” art training, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis in illustration, at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Free time is definitely difficult to come by however he really tries and make time for sports. He plays on a couple soccer teams and dabble in a little Jui Jitsu. He also likes to watch a bunch of movies and really loves to travel. I think he means to plays in the movies because I know that I do like to travel through time in.

Last but not least he would like to have world domination because it is at the forefront of his mind. He’s got a ton of art projects on the horizon. He said that if you’d like to stay up to date on that stuff you can do so by subscribing to his blog on his Website.( WWW.JESSESMITHTATTOOS.COM). He only has plans to work one conventions right now and that’s TattooLapalooza in June of net year. He is really trying to cut down on the amount of conventions that he is doing, so he can stay home and tighten up the business a little.

Jesse Smith is AWESOME and super nice! I love his stuff! Take a minute and Check him out!!!!

Hell City Arizona

I went to Hell City in Phoenix, Arizona for 6 days. The first day which was Friday, there was such a long line to get in at noon. My Nana named Fran Oreto got her very first tattoo!!! She didn’t even have a beer, ONLY a diet COKE for the pain she was in.She got a fleur de lis with 2 peacock feathers on her right leg. She said that it hurt and I bet it would hurt. During Hell City there was Heck City for little devils. There was face painting, a coloring contest for kids, and temporary tattoos for anyone who couldn’t get a tattoo or who didn’t want a real tattoo. I saw Kelly Doty there and hung out with her for a few minutes a day through out the convention. I did 40 mini-interviews with people and got a bracelet with crosses and red beads, Hell City t-shirt, and a Black 13 coloring book. A few people came up to me and said they were fans of my blog which was great, I also got to meet some new artists, that hopefully I will be doing interviews with soon.I got a free t-shirt from my parent’s friend, Ryan, it had chinese writing on it an a design as well ( http://samuryanclothing.blogspot.com/ ). A tattoo artist named Mike Chambers gave me a print of a painting on his card and I thanked him a lot because that was like a one-in-a-million thing that happened there. I also got interviewed with my parents. The guy who did the interview with us his name is Adam,he does a blog too, it’s called, www.tv.bodymod.org . He has a interview up right now with Me, my mom and Joe. He said that I am the greatest bloger EVER!!!! When heard that there was a new blog out he went to the blog and scrolled all the way down and when he saw my picture he thought it was a joke. So, he called one of his friends and asked if it was a joke because of how well written and how well typed the blog was. He was shocked for a 10 year old to be doing a blog this well. But I only have like about 100 fans that like my blog already. When we were at the hotel we saw a chess and checkers game that was in the grass as the checker and chess board game. There was a croquet game there too, but they were HUGE!!!! There was like 7 maybe 8 different pools and a few different hot tubs. I got thrown in to the hot tub by Joe and it was very hot but then it just felt fine after a few minutes in there. Then when I went back into the other pool it was freezing and I mean FREEZING in there, but then it was just fine after a few minutes like in the hot tub. We were the last ones to be in the pool that last night before we came back to Florida. There was a water slide that twisted twice and then went straight down into the 3 foot deep water, it was AWESOME. Joe, my mom, and I went onto the water slide but I went the water slide a lot of time there. Joe went on it like ten times and my mom went on it only one time because of her dreads which I totally understand that. We went to the Phoenix Zoo and my mom got me a stuffed animal that was a leopard and it was pink with leopard spots that were pink as well. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for one night then skipped a night and got room service, and then went the other night after that, MAN that place is GOOD. When we were there I tried the Shrimp Tempera for an appetizer there, I loved it. At the tattoo convention I saw a Steve Ercal’s portrait that said ”Did I do that?” underneath the portrait, it was great. There was a side show that had 3 people in it and the 3 people did all these sorts of wild things. There were a lot of people in the booths and there were a lot of people getting tattooed of course. There were contests for people to enter there tattoos and there was an announcer named Jeff and his wife Sarah was doing the registration and she helped me with my 40 mini-interviews,and Lucious from the Suicide Girls. The subjects were Owls, Celebrites, and Animals or Creatures (keep a eye out for stories on them soon). The subjects for the contests were large and small black & grey, best overall female & male, small color, full back pieces, sleeves and more. During the Judging Jeff asked questions about random facts, did you know there’s 18 different animal shapes in animal crackers! My step dad judged with Chris Longo and a few other people. I had so much fun at Hell City Phoenix, Arizona.

Durb Morrison from Hell City

I did an interview with Durb Morrison, from Hell City. You can contact him by Durb Morrison Hell City Tattoo P.O. Box 239 Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. Durbster.com or Hellcity.com. He tattoos four days a week right now and work on the Hell City Tattoo Fest a few days, leaving him with a little time for painting and designing art.
He has always had a rebellious nature to him, always trying to do something against the mold of society, so naturally he fell into the world of alternative arts. He began his interest in tattoos very young. He was always amazed with how tattoos look on the body. He realized that he wanted to actually tattoo around the age of 14, but never picked up a machine until he was 17, still in high school. After graduating high school, he went to work in a studio within months. He has never slowed down or looked back. (AWESOME!)
He said he is primarily a self-taught tattoo artist, cutting his teeth tattooing close friends and other punk and hard core kids around the scene. They were open to whatever he wanted to do, so that really helped him get over the fear of tattooing people and contributed to being able to excel quickly.
He said that he really doesn’t have a definitive style or specialty. He enjoys doing painterly traditional tattoos with bright colors and strong foundations. He has also done a lot of Japanese style work, which contributes to his application on the skin and overall look of his tattooing. He gets a lot of different requests for different styles all of which he tries to stay fluent with.
Traditional tattoos have had the biggest influence on his work. He always tend to get more complex though, adding more color and filling the skin up with solid color. His clients typically are looking for that exact thing bright, traditional style tattoos that can be seen from across the room that will stay brighter forever.
Lately, he has been into learning about pain control with his clients. He has been experimenting more with pre and during numbing agents that do not effect the tattoo or healing, therefore allowing him to get more done on them.
He is always trying something new, it keeps things exciting and fresh. The whole rotary machine had his interest for a second, but he is too set in his ways with coil machines. He is however working on a new product called ”True Tube” that will be released soon, stay tuned to durbster.com for details as they are released.
He WON’T do: any racist or drug-related, names unless its family bloodline, and portraits mainly because that is not his focus. He tries to direct people to the best artist for anything he doesn’t so though, that is important too, making sure everyone gets the best tattoo they can.
He has tattoos from: Guy Aitchison, Joe Capobianco, Timothy Hoyer, James Kern, Brian Everett, Gunnar, Dave Ski and many more artists.
The thing about being a tattoo artist is the freedom to create his own world and daily grind. He loves creative people he meets along the way and the energy those around him for being a part of this whole tattoo thing, it’s the best.
His perfect ”dream” client would have to be someone who gives direction with their design, but also allows gives you the freedom to do your own special touch to their tattoo. He works only by appointment, working on clients that have waited patiently to get tattooed by him, those are his favorites.
He enjoys doing mediums, trying not to get corned into one thing. When he is not tattooing he likes to paint, he also has done a good amount of sculpture and currently he enjoys digital design, which he applies to the Hell City Tattoo Fest. He never went to Art College, but always hung over shoulders and tried to absorb what he could from reading and applying things he has learned along the way.
When he has free time he does things like he doesn’t know because with the Hell City Tattoo Festival being only a couple of weeks away. He likes to travel and tries to workout here and there, he has skateboarded since he was 13 and still likes to skateboard (me too!), and play video games are a fun outlet after a long day too!!!! Check back for more from Durb, I will be interviewing him about Hell City, in Arizona in2 weeks.

Orrin Hurley and his daughter Aeris

I did an interview with Orrin Hurley. He works at the world famous Daredevil Tattoo 174 Ludlow St New York City, NY 10002. The phone number is 212-533-8303. He is mostly appointment only but…. he enjoys doing walk-ins occasionally.

He got interested in tattoos by when he was around 13 years old. There were no tattooed people where he grew up in VA and TN. He used to watch a show called Headbangers Ball on MTV and the host Riki Rachman had beautiful sleeves. It caught his attention and gave him a deep curiosity in Hartford. He always was an artist from very young but he couldn’t see himself painting canvases for a living. So this ”new” art form to him inspired in to take what he loved to do and make it his career.

He was first a body piercer (it was his first way of working his foot into the door of the tattoo business). He started piercing all the punk rock kids locally then after piercing for a bit the owner of the shop that he worked at saw his artwork and offered to teach him how to tattoo. He apprenticed for almost 2 years in very ”biker” tattoo shop. His apprenticeship was very tough physically and mentally. He worked for more than 80 hours a week sometimes.

He is well known for not specializing in anything, actually. He does every style and treats each one like it IS, his specialty. He really works hard to be well rounded and be able to satisfy all the particular needs of each subject matter and customer. He’d say he gravitate towards a painterly but yet traditionally based illustrative style. If he had to pick though he’d mostly do Bio-organic, Japenese and painterly new schoolish tattoos.

 He is highly influenced by the traditional ideas of making a solid tattoo that lasts a lifetime and reads well from a distance. But yet he likes to push the limit of whats possible and try to make each clever and unique.

He is always working with new color theories and subject matters. He is always down to try new things with his tattooing. After all if you don’t change what you are doing then what you are doing will never change.

He won’t do tribal because he doesn’t enjoy it at all. Anything else he finds a lot of joy in it. He enjoys the challenge of trying to take every tattoo he does and makes it like one you have never seen before. Other than that he will refuse to do anything ”hateful”.

The list could go on forever. To name a few Guy Aitchison, Marcus Pacheco, Nick Baxter, Cory Kruger, Adrian Dominic, Andre Malcom, Grime, Mike Roper, Steve Moore, Adrain Lee.. He could go on forever.

He loves his job. He gets to do what he loves and supports himself and his children with his passion. The only thing that really bugs him is going a day with doing art or tattoos.

His perfect ”dream” client is a client that has researched their ideas, is open to his interpretation, understands the general process of getting tattooed and is on time.

He has no ”formal” art training. He likes painting in oil, watercolor and acrylic when he has time.

When he is not working he enjoys spending time with his children. His daughter Aeris who is 9 and his son Kai who is 2 is his world…. and he hopes to be someone that not only is a good parent but also inspires them to do their best.
He hopes that in a few years he can push himself to learn more about tattooing.

I also  interviewed Orrin’s daughter Aeris who is 9 years old. The thing that she likes about having a dad as a tattoo artist is that she likes being in a bunch of tattoo magazines with her dad.
Her favorite tattoo on her dad is the skull butterfly on his stomach.
She mostly likes all the tattoos her dad did.
She says that when she is old enough then she will get a lot of tattoos and learn to tattoo one day.
She feels like she is famous and it makes her want to take a lot more pictures. Her dad got her a camera so she can start practicing to be a photographer when she grows up. I included a picture she took that was featured on Tattoosnob.com.
I feel famous too with my blog, because of the feedback I get, so I know it can happen for her! She will be known for her pictures. I belive that she can do it.
She likes to paint and draw things like skulls and people the most. I love drawing to but I sometimes paint pictures like a flower or something in that area and stuff like that.

The Amazing Roman Abrego

I did an interview with Roman  from  Artistic Element, 34185 Yucaipa blvd. Yucaipa, Ca.( Californa NOT Canada.), 909-797-8280, .

He got interested in tattoos by that his grandfather, Art Escamilla, who was a painter, he would have all of his grandchildren paint. When he (as in Roman) was young he was into art but as he got older he got in trouble and eventually ended up in jail. Jail is what really got him back into art, he had a lot of time to work on his art abilities. He was released from jail and began working in construction but he knew he wanted to do something with his life. His uncle Jerry gave him his first tattoo machine and that’s when he knew what he wanted to do was tattoos.

He learned to tattoo by first working out of his house not knowing what the heck he was doing. Eventually he started at a shop and was surrounded by a lot of amazing artists like Mike Cole, Carson Hill, and his old boss John Garafe.

The type of work that is popular with his customers right now is that he usually do portraits and biomechanaical, he loves doing whatever is inside of his head like bio. He can just draw it on someone and it’s awesome.

He says that if someone came in with something dope then he would do it.

He is trying the reach around as a new technic.  Not sure really what that is.

He usually will do something if someone wants something REALLY bad enough, he can only tell them what will look good and his opinion on the piece that they want.

The tattoo artists and other artist working in other media that he looks up to are: Mike Cole, Carson Hill, Mike Devires, Craig Driscol, Ron Earhart, Ray Williams, Adrian Dominic, and Shawn Zee.

What he likes and bugs him about being a tattoo artist is: PEOPLE!!!!!

His “dream” client is a DEAD PALE WHITE CHICK THAT DOESN’T MOVE!!!!!! lol

He has had never “formal” art training just his grandpa.

For fun he drinks jagermeister and teases his apprentice.

He is starting a t-shirt company and it should be out really soon with Mike Cole, and he is putting out a book with Mike Devries and soon he going to put it out on DVD.

Make sure to check his website out!

BJ Johnson aka SOBA

I did an interview with BJ Johnson. He works at Love Tattoo but for a certain amount of time because the rest of the time he works on builing tattoo machines for my mom, step-dad, other tattoo artists, including him. Love Tattoo is located at 7450 Union Ave, Jenison MI 49428. He only does by appointment because he doesn’t tattoo on a regular schedule.

He got interested in building tattoo machines by that he loves building things. He also loves to take things apart and see how they work. He loves TV shows like How its Made- Science Channel stuff. When he got interested into tattooing his first machines were kits and he had to build them himself with very little instruction. It was sort of like a test. He thought that if he wanted to be really good at tattooing, then he should know how to make his own equipment perform the best it could. That’s why he started studying how machines work. He really liked figuring out how to tune a machine for a specifc result.

He learned how to build tattoo machines by one step at a time. He first studied frame geometry and why they were shaped the way they are. Then he studied coils, then springs. Then he tackled one aspect at a time and did a lot of research on each part.

The machines that are popular right now with his customers right now are definitely the machines for larger groupings. He says that the tattooers are using big mags alot. My mom says she’s a big mag JUNKIE!  This is a challenge for him because he personally does not tattoo that way. My mom said Bj saw her tattoo at Hell City and was like “You tattoo like a mad women” after buying her favorite machine a  white mini with pink coils, she named it “Opal” (picture above). He says that so it took some trial and error to be able to tune a machine to be used that way. As far as what he is into doing. He is still playing with custom finishes a lot. He really likes to make fancy machines and customs. That is what is fun for him. He doesn’t know if he is made for any machine. He has quite a few different frame styles, so he doesn’t think that he is known for any certain style.

The influence that made the name ”Soba” is that he was a graffiti artist back in the 80′s and the late 90′s. ”Soba” was a tag name he used toward the end of his graffiti period and he guesses that it just carried over into his tattoo stuff. He says he really can’t say where it came from. It is just something he came up with.

　His friend Horimouja uses the new style of rotary machines exclusively now. He used to use BJ’s machines but he has made the switch. He was playing around with the idea of a new rotary designed just for him. He is so busy though that he had no time to put into it. Plus, he doesn’t use rotary machines, so its tough to think in those terms.

Its like a vegetarian cooking a steak- its probably not going to turn out very good!

 

He says that he likes to build all of the machines he builds equal. He loves variety. So he is glad he gets to build lots of different stuff. His perfect dream ”machine” is he doesn’t know. My mom says Bj doesn’t know it yet but the machines there talking about will be top 10 awesomest!

I tattoo very rarely these days. I still do it- just not very much. I have some great tattoos on me! I have work from Aaron Cain, Seth Ciferri, Hannah Aitchison, Jime Litwalk, Daniel Cote, Jeff Zuck, James Kern…. I admire all these artists- and SO many more! Too many to list!

 What he likes about being a machine builder is that he loves that he is able to use his skills and he also loves that he can express his passion. Also to create forum that benefits other artists. Its one thing to make beautiful images. But for him to make beautiful OBJECTS that not only function but are able to help others express THEIR passion. That is why he loves the most. As for what bugs him is that he doesn’t focus on that. He takes the positive every chance he gets!!!!He has never enrolled as a full time college student, no. He has however taken many classes in areas that he wanted to excel in, or learn more about. But not for college credit- but for knowledge. He has taken to jewelry/ metalsmithing classes, a life drawing class, and various workshops in specific mediums such as watercolor painting and glass enameling. He thinks that it is important to ALWAYS keep learning- and always keep studying. In his case he can’t help it!!!! As for as machines go he hasn’t gotten any formal training, no. And no he doesn’t offer books or DVDs or anything. He doesn’t feel offering ”How To” would benefit his community as a whole, so he doesn’t do it. He is sure he can sell a ton of copies but for him it’s more than that. Once in a while he’ll do a tuning seminar at a convention, but that’s it.

For fun he plays pool. He says he is not very good though but he enjoys playing though. He also does the Wakeboard. He also loves to watch movies.

His blog is http://sobaone.blogspot.com/

His website is http://www.sobaone.com/