(upbeat music) - Sometimes I feel like I'm in a really good creative space and it doesn't take me very long to come up with something that I really like, and other times it's more of a challenge.

(upbeat music) I am primarily a pen and ink artist, so it's just white paper with black pens and I do sort of tattoo style artwork, heavy line work, heavy outline around the image.

There's all kinds of different tattoo styles, but it's a kind of a style that is not photo realistic, but it's more of this image that kind of pops when you look at it, so it's not your typical artwork.

Most people would want to hang on their living room wall or show grandma, no if Instagram, it's more of this kind of edgy type of work.

(upbeat music) I've always been interested in art and drawing.

I moved up here to Crookston and I was working with the Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing, and a coworker of mine saw that I liked to draw and doodle during meetings and he said, "Well, why don't you do that more?"

And in a weird way, it just kind of exploded.

Before I knew it, I was drawing a lot and then people were asking me to do commissions and I created a little book and I was going to seminars and doing live drawing, and that's kind of how it resurfaced.

I also like to do a lot of mural work, mostly in color, but some are black and white, but I love to do indoor outdoor murals for businesses or organizations or schools.

Right now I'm working on a mural at the Care and Share, which is here in Crookston.

I'm working on a few different murals, but this one in particular is in the entryway and it's a mural designed to honor Sister Justina, who was the instigator of the Care and Share originally.

Figuring out what I'm going to do for the rest of this mural.

I come up with a few different ideas and then I look 'em over and sleep on it.

I decided I'd create it so that she has this stained glass look like she's a stained glass image.

The Highland Elementary School, and I created a mural there.

Last year I was the artist in residence, so it's this long 50 foot mural that is sort of a giant insect image.

At the Grand Theater here in Crookston, I created this movie style series of murals, "Batman and Gotham City," "Yoda and Star Wars: The Death Star," and then "Scooby-Doo," the side of the Ace Hardware store in town.

It's a huge mural I created about three years ago, and it's a series of six different hands, giant hands with different skin tones.

Then there's another outdoor mural on the side of the building of the Crookston Community Theater building.

My artwork, often there are words within it, and I just find that really evocative and kind of brings out what I'm trying to say.

The theme is always trying to look at our inner lives.

That's always the theme.

So there's this outward image, but there's always this, what's happening below the surface, and so it's very symbolic, a lot of metaphor, and I try to create images that evoke something that people can look at, and it kind of pulls them in or they think, oh, that's interesting.

Spirituality, the idea of compassion, of unity, of there's something much greater than we often see or acknowledge.

That kind of informs my artwork.

A colleague of mine, Theresa Blythe, who lives in Phoenix for the last few years, we've been collaborating and making these different cards, which are the size of tarot cards.

We're working on a series of mystics and saints.

We've done 20 of those.

We're working on the next set of 10.

Sometimes I just feel like, "Wow, I can't believe I'm able to do what I'm doing and I'm excited that people love my work and the style, and that's been a nice surprise for me.

I'm not that interested in people wanting to purchase my art, even though that's great.

I'm really more interested in this is what is calling me.

This is what really interests me.

This is what is coming out of me, and I feel like it connects with a lot of people and I want them to have that similar connection of unity and compassion, and there's something powerful and good within all of us.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.