Almost every evening, as I open the door to leave my shop, I turn around and take one last look.

I am overcome by a wave of satisfaction almost every time. Here, I create not only my art but also my own work culture. As a young man, I dreamed of such a place.

Looking back forty-two years after working ten years in my studio in downtown Richmond, Virginia, I can fully appreciate the courage it took to move sixty miles up the James River to Bremo Bluff, start renovating a 1906 farmhouse and jacking up an old buggy barn for my studio.

I was thirty-two years old, burned out from taking the traditional road to success and looking for a new start that evolved from deep inside me.