Growing up, I had always loved to draw but for whatever reason never pursued any formal training like art class while I was in school. As a professional working in higher education, I used that interest and love of art to learn graphic design and desktop publishing as these skills were often needed to design various marketing and printed materials. At one point, I even contemplated leaving higher education altogether and enrolled in an art program at a local community college. After 2 years of courses I was preparing my portfolio to submit to the program to apply and commit myself to an art focus. As luck would have it, my wife, Salette and I found out we were pregnant with our 3rd child and I realized then that I might have to delay my plans for a sudden and uncertain career change.
The borrowed tool that changed it all
A few years later, I was working on a small personal project that required me to trim some pieces of thick plastic. I didn’t know what I could use to do this so I called a friend who offered to let me borrow his Dremel rotary tool. I had never used one before so he showed me all of its features and the different attachments that I could use with it. I thought it was the greatest tool ever. After completing my project, I realized that I could do so much more with this tool so I bought one of my own. Around this same time, I was window shopping in a local surf and skate shop in Manhattan Beach. The store was selling some rather unique skate boards that had deep carved designs on the bottom of the deck. I remembered my Dremel and thought “I could totally do this.” So I went online and purchased a couple of blank skateboard decks and began mapping out the designs for my future projects. I started with some basic ideas through some free hand drawings and then cleaned them up on the computer. At this point, I realized I needed some way to transfer the image of my creation onto the deck so I bought and used transfer paper. Once the image was transferred onto the wood, I began what would become the start of a love affair with wood carving and wood art. Over the years, I’ve experimented and added additional techniques and tools to my artwork, including routers, scroll saws, sanding, staining, painting, and epoxy resin. I expanded my projects to include other wooden objects but I still really love creating on skateboards. Here are just a few examples of my work over the years.
Swing On A Star Creations 