Born in Virginia and raised in Maryland, I learned to weld working in the ski industry at a small ski resort in southern Pennsylvania in 2004. Building terrain park features, I was able to use my imagination and build whatever I could dream up. I made the move to Colorado in 2008 to chase the snow like so many others before me. That single decision changed the course of my life in ways I couldn't understand. I spent 4 years in Colorado before moving to Michigan with my now wife to continue my journey. 

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 My wife and I got married in 2012 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. That trip, as so many other vacations for people, we joked about moving to Mexico one year in the future. In 2014 we moved from Michigan back to Colorado. I left the ski industry and worked for some different fabrication companies. Building custom lighting features and signage, added another tool to my belt with fabrication and design. As I found myself more and more intrigued by designing and building things for myself, I began taking on small furniture projects for friends and family. Shortly after that, I began working at a small custom furniture shop, this was my first exposure to high end woodworking and carpentry. The requests from friends and family began to be too much to keep up with and I decided to step out on my own and create my own company, Departure Fabrication. I began designing and building high end, unique furniture pieces and grew my business slowly. I participated in several home shows and art festivals, growing my clientele and coming into my own style. 

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 On Black Friday in 2020, my wife and I received the news that our 7 year old Golden Retriever Mosby, had Lymphoma. Flashback to the thought about moving to Mexico. When the covid pandemic happened, and most travel stopped, we feared we may never be able to return to Mexico. Receiving our beloved dogs cancer diagnosis, faced with the fact that life is short and nothing is guaranteed, we decided to transfer that energy into figuring how to move to Mexico and live the life we wanted. We drove to Sayulita, Nayarit in December of 2020 and spent two weeks networking and trying to figure out how to make an international move. Seven months later, we hopped in our little VW wagon and moved our lives to Sayulita. I closed my company, my wife changed jobs, and I had to figure out what I would do for work. 

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 We were fortunate that on one of our trips to the area, we met some incredible people and they were kind enough to connect us to the people we would need to make all of this happen. I knew my body could not continue building large pieces of furniture with the damage I had done working in the ski industry and the general abuse I sustained lifting heavy metal and wood improperly over the years. I was somewhat broken and lost on how to move forward. For the first year I took odd carpentry jobs for property managers around town. Finally, after securing a small workshop and rebuilding my tool collection, I came up with this idea for the skulls, wanting to honor the art and culture of Sayulita. It took quite a bit of time to get to this point, but I could not be happier. I love the variety these pieces allow me, and look forward to seeing where it goes and how it grows.