Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories are of Florida.

My vivid palette of recollections includes the smell of night blooming jasmine, languid tropical air, elegant royal palm-lined streets, gray Spanish moss hanging from old live oaks, impenetrable green mangrove bayous and hammocks, tanned and sunburned bodies, turquoise bays flecked with white caps, white sand beaches, blazing sunlight, luscious pink sunsets, sailboats...and my grandparents, father, siblings, aunts and uncles, and cousins.

Most of all, I remember drawing and painting salubrious harbor scenes with both my grandmother and father. It was a gift of fate to have been born into a truly imaginative and energetic family.

Perhaps it is not surprising that my wife Amy and I decided to establish a studio in St. Petersburg in 2004. It reconnects me to the free and creative child that is inside of every artist.