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Born in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood in 1943, I moved with my family to a new suburban home in an authentic pasture setting.  From an eight-room schoolhouse in Elm Grove, I graduated from a 36 room St. Mary’s Grade School as one of 120 students in the eighth grade.  My education continued at St. Francis Seminary on the Milwaukee’s Lake Michigan shoreline.  Having taught grade school at two diocesan parishes, I began his long 32-year career as an English instructor at Arrowhead High School in Hartland Wisconsin. 

My early summer years were spent backpacking in the mountains of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah. After joining the Chicago Mountaineering Club in 1983, I started rock climbing and spent many expeditions climbing in the mountains of Alaska, Peru, Bolivia, Tajikistan, Siberia, British Columbia and the Yukon.   I edited the Chicago Mountaineer for several years as well as a creative writing journal for my high school during this time.

During my teaching years, I studied theater staging and lighting at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis Minnesota. The influence of this experience led to my work in my high school’s drama productions, the Lake Country Players and the Waukesha Civic Theater.  I became the first president of the Nordic Ski Club of Milwaukee when I began developing cross-country ski trails for the Department of Natural Resources in the South Kettle Moraine State Forest. I avidly competed at cross-country ski races throughout the Midwest and completed 13 American Bierkebeiner ski races in Hayward Wisconsin. My ski experience led to my participation on the USSA Central Division Board of Directors.

I amassed a collection of his 35mm mountaineering slides that exceed 15,000 pictures. In addition I found subject matter in noted gardens and the work of Will Radler, noted rosarian, at a time when the digital revolution was developing. 

I had always wanted to print my photos for framing, but my busy life style prevented me from accomplishing it until I visited Skagway Alaska in the summer of 2004. It was in an art gallery that I discovered the wonders of software manipulation and the technical artistry available through archival printing.

I purchased an Epson 7600 printer and began a collection of acid free papers that include matte, canvas, fine art, and photographic uses.  Because of the cost of the basic computer supplies, I created a wood shop in his basement where all his canvas frames are made.

After I retired in 2000, I began digitizing my slide collection for photographic reproduction, computer; but now, I employ these pictures in my creative process in art.

Since 2005, I have been experimenting with design, color, light, shadows, layers of images, movement for the sheer pleasure of it. I told my sister, Susan Voegeli – a noted Wisconsin artist, that I want to do this art for the mere pleasure of doing it. But now I just want to see how far I can go with it.

As I move into each year,  I have up to  12 art shows in the Midwest.  During each fall and winter, I search for new expressions and presentations that incorporate fresh ideas for canvas, paper, and tiles.

I continue my jaunts to the gym, my volunteer work at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Symphony, and my participation in the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band as I active push on into my seventies.