Biography
I am self-taught as a fine artist. Currently my work can be viewed at Hofheimer Gallery. I was previously represented by Ann Nathan Gallery for many years. My work has been exhibited widely and is in many collections.
I was born in 1938 on Chicago's southwest side to parents of Lithuanian descent. My father, a machinist by trade, moonlighted as a stage magician. My mother introduced me to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum of Natural History, places that influenced my education more than traditional schooling. In 1956, just short of my eighteenth birthday, I enlisted in the Navy, serving for three years on the Kenneth D. Bailey, out of New Port, Rhode Island. I was with the Atlantic Fleet, with two deployments to the "Med" as Sixth Fleet and Cuba as a Gunners Mate/Seaman.
After being discharged, I pursued a commercial art career at Chicago's American Academy of Art. Mary Basso and I married and, within a few years, Gina, our daughter, was born.
Twenty-seven years of being a graphic designer at the Chicago Sun-Times disillusioned me about commercial art, and I turned to the Fine Arts, concentrating on painting. Mary Basso Klauba died in 1995. In 2006, Judith Burson Lloyd and I were married at the Seamen's Bethel in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
