about

Painting the guitar has always been about the Music. My connection to Music. And my love of this amazing instrument.

 

I have always loved the guitar. As a kid, I was obsessed with it, from holding and playing it to just looking at its beauty. It's versatility in sound from one kind of guitar to another, excited and inspired me. From formally studying guitar at age 9, on a stiff, chunky nylon string, I can remember the freedom I felt when a few years later I found a beat-up, sun-faded nylon string that could I sling over my shoulder, carefree, and take outside, and everywhere I went. When I got my first electric guitar, a burgundy color sg-copy, I was blown away.

 

I remember playing those first bar chords, how my long fingers easily adapted like they were meant to do. I played it out of a small Peavy amp. At 13 years-old, the ability to plug-in and play a solid body instrument that had weight, and create music in my childhood bedroom, felt surreal. Santana was an early influencer on my playing. I related to the way his riffs poetically and percussively moved the notes. With a beautiful stone guitar pic, something I knew I had to posses, the effects of playing with all of these different materials, blew my mind. I eventually got a steel string guitar. I could easily take it outside, sit on the grass or the front porch, and strum those deep wood tones into the warm and sweet, nature air. At around age 16, I got a beautiful cream-color, Gibson SG-Custom. It had gold hardware, white pickguard. Mother of Pearl inlays. Ebony neck. By then, I had been heavily influenced by the playing of guitar idols Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. They best emulated my own sense and sensibility of guitar improvisation, how I naturally played. To search all of the available sounds and ways to riff, whether it be with a violin bow or a glass bottle as a slide, there were countless ways to experience this wonderful instrument and in turn, express my own creativity. 

 

Musically and artistically, I studied jazz guitar in high school and in college, rocked out as lead guitarist (and drummer) in a bunch of bands growing up. Today, I play guitar in my trio, Reservoir Road Band and gig locally. I painted my first guitar body in the 80s at age 22 and had that built nearly 20-years later. Artists Kandinsky, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Picasso, Dali, Miro, and others, especially my mom, Dyan Rosenberg, a painter, furniture designer, home designer/builder who creates in many mediums, informed my artistic energy and sensibility, early on.

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My athletic brain still leads the way in my approaches to things I do in life. I am a former competitive triathlete and have enjoyed a career as exercise physiologist and orthopedic physical therapist. I give 100% of my passion and energy into the process of painting and designing each guitar as I would in a race. I approach art and playing music with the same discipline and energy I have brought into the arena of human performance. In the end, it's about results through dedication and commitment to the process.