Having taken as many art classes as possible throughout his public school years to indulge his passion and pursue an early dream of becoming a comic book artist or animator, TJ spent a couple years majoring in art at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley from 1992-1995, then switched over to Fox Valley Technical College to attain an Associate Degree in Printing & Publishing.

Combining all those years of training in various skills, he spent 6 years as a graphic designer at the local issues/arts/entertainment newspaper The Scene (formerly The Valley Scene). As a one-man art and production department, TJ produced page layouts and some of the most recognizable advertisements, graphics, and illustrations in local publishing, and readied layouts and files for press. In keeping with his longtime love of movies, he even provided video reviews and the occasional film column for the publication.

Though a fan of technology and a hardcore videogame addict since 1980, TJ didn't get a home computer of his own until 1996. Immediately he became fascinated with the Internet and began studying the creation of websites. In October 1996, he uploaded the Metroid Database, an exhaustive encyclopedic reference to Nintendo's Metroid videogame series -- a website that has since become the oldest and largest Metroid website on the 'net -- and this began his journey into web design. Since that time, he has designed and published many websites for various businesses and individuals and continues to explore web design to this day.

TJ got his first tattoo in the spring of 2001: the Japanese kanji characters for "kaiju" ("monster"). Though fascinated with the idea of the human body as an artistic substrate since teenagerhood, he had given only fleeting thought to entering the field himself. Over the years, TJ's tattoo artist would make numerous attempts to recruit him into the business, which he courteously turned down. In July 2003 however, as TJ was preparing to leave the newspaper, his artist's egging-on suddenly sounded appealing. Beginning an apprenticeship in mid-July, he left the paper at the end of the month and began to learn the art and science of tattooing, all the while continuing his graphic design career on a freelance basis.

Although TJ loves graphic design and continually aspires to learn and improve, that occupation had largely kept him from producing any drawings or paintings for personal enjoyment for many years. Crediting the tattoo business with getting him fired up about drawing once again, TJ began producing artwork of his own again in early 2004 by doing a series of paintings of classic Universal monsters -- the first time he had painted anything in nearly a decade! From that moment on, he picked up where he had left off so many years ago, and came full circle by once again cranking out paintings and drawings of monsters, heroes, pinup girls, cartoons and famous faces.

Now, TJ is trying to combine all of his passions and talents, and is a one-man factory of graphic design, artwork, webworks, and tattoos. Further ambitions include designing t-shirts, DVD/CD packaging, toys, and book publishing. And you can see it all happen right here at Krushervision!

TJ's full resume is available to prospective clients and employers upon request.