I’m the artistic son of an Old Testament professor and a counselor who helps survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

In other words, my creativity has been steeped in an environment in which the love of Scripture and the love of God’s people have never been mutually exclusive. My doodles became meaningful to my friends because my friends, in all of their eccentricity, hope, and pain, were meaningful to me. When those friends began to play music and tour the world, they took my drawings with them. Album layout & design, merchandise design, tour posters and t-shirts and things that people ended up tattooing upon themselves, and all of it because my parents encouraged me to see the stories of Scripture and the lives of God’s people as being deep and well worth my time and attention.

Being a father of four children also serves to remind me that story matters. Whether my wife, kids, and I are watching Mayazaki films, reading comic books, trying to figure out how to explain Levitical law to people younger than 8, or reading the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers together, we find that shared imagination is our fuel for discovery and transformation. Stories are the rich heart of our lives, and the sharing of them (through illustration, song, and laughter) is true joy.