I was nothing unusual at an early age- well, at least not unusually prodigious.  My world contributions consisted of disturbing clay monsters, cartoons, and the usual quota of dinosaurs and sheep.  I was, however, possessed of a vivid imagination that won me some small recognition as a child.  One of my first achievements was an award at the Edmonds Art Festival in my hometown of Seattle, for a small ceramic tide-pool I made at school.  But my greatest moment of glory was getting to skip class in first-grade to meet the author and illustrator of "Clifford, the Big, Red Dog" (an award for my riveting picture book on dinosaurs).
    My family moved to Utah when I was 8, and I began spending a lot of time entertaining myself with art (especially in math and science classes).  By the time High School came around, I was a doodling machine, but had completed only a handful of actual projects- all of them in color.  My first black and white project in pencil ended up behind my mother's piano where no one would see it.  I have always been a devout perfectionist, and there were a good many pictures from my first year of High School that ended up behind the piano.
    One could say that my first decent piece of artwork also happened to be my first attempt at a charcoal drawing.  It was from a picture of three Egyptian black stone statues that I found in National Geographic.  I was enthralled by the mystery of ancient Egypt, and I discovered that old black and white photographs seemed to play very well to my artistic strengths and interests.  The last project of my Sophomore year of High School was "Pilots"- a WWII picture of some pilots in front of a B-17 hangar, awaiting the return of their companions.  I believe that project was my most ambitious, and marks a milestone in my technical progress.
    At this time I decided to also pursue my musical studies on the trombone, which resulted in my meeting Rachael Bertch- concertmaster of the Granite Youth Symphony, and my future wife.  I continued to draw as much as before, but realized that I also had an interest in music that I wanted to develop.  I studied the trombone at the University of Utah for one year, and spent the next two years in Curitiba, Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Upon returning, I continued to study music at the University of Utah, and quickly became engaged to Rachael, my best friend of six years.  She had just returned from serving a mission on the Mexican border, and resumed studying the violin at the Hartt School of Music, in Hartford, Connecticut.  I made a completely objective and unbiased decision to transfer to the Hartt School the following year.  Rachael and I were married June 1st, 2005, and we have since graduated from the Hartt School.
    I am now 25, and fortunate enough to spend most of my time working with Rachael in a variety of creative businesses that now include drawing, photography, graphic design, web design, music, and teaching.  I am grateful for the talents I have been given, the opportunity to develop them, and a wonderful wife who supports and encourages me!

  ~Thomas Virgin