“The world is violent and mercurial — it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love — love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent; being a writer; being a painter; being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.” ― Tennessee Williams

2D
3D
musings

I make menus, design plans, schedules, businesses, kitchens, sculptures, paintings, memoirs, and children. Being energetic and curious my whole life, I’ve learned how to sauté, butcher, demolish, build, paint, decorate, wire, plumb, mentor, swim, sand, and saw.

I am married to painter Sharon Shapiro, and we reside on 25 acres of hardwoods and hayfield where I ride a mountain bike and wander the forest as a Forest Therapy Guide. Between Sharon and I, we have six children, three grandchildren, and two dogs, Leonard and Homer.

In recent years, I have focused my attention on making art. My paintings, sculptures, and wall pieces have all been sourced from tainted paints, discarded supplies, recovered wood, and found objects. I am at ease with these latent materials. They are free, recycled, and hold immense aesthetic beauty.


From a place of continual beginning, I paint and sculpt works that explore the connection between ourselves and the more-than-human world. My practice is fueled by the tension around the emergence of our true selves.


I give myself over to the essence of flow.

As a chef and restaurant owner for 34 years, I created and developed the following businesses and projects in the Charlottesville area with my partner Vincent Derquenne:

INTERIORS
Rose Jean Micro Hotel (5-unit micro-hotel in 1885 house), 2021-2023
Residential Renovation (complete renovation of mid-century ranch), 2019

HOSPITALITY
Crushpad Wines (boutique wine bar), 2021 - present
Luce Pasta (fresh pasta to go from an 88 sf “closet”), 2019 - present
The Space Downtown (event catering space), 2010 - present
Bang! Restaurant (first tapas in region), 2002 - present
Bizou Diner, (multi-cultural comfort food), 1996 - present
Metropolitain, (critically acclaimed first restaurant), 1991 - 2002

EDUCATION
Haystack Mountain School of Craft, 2024
Certified Forest Bathing Guide, 2020
University of Miami, Miami, FL, 1996