I have many things in my life that have inspired me. In the last two years, nothing has inspired me more than my two children. My son Ethan Avedon, and my daughter Acacia Linnaea have opened up a new world to me, and have taught me how to play like a child. I think one reason people love having children is the fact that children give you a reason to act like a kid again. In the past two years I have laughed more, cried more, and enjoyed life more than I can ever remember. It has been a truly amazing journey; incredibly hard at times, but worth the effort. In regards to their middle names, Avedon is a nod to the photographer Richard Avedon, a man whose work inspired me countless times. Linnaea, on a more romantic note is from a coffee shop, named Linnaeas my wife Suzzi and I frequented often while living in San Luis Obispo. It was a place where art, music, love, coffee and cheesecake filled the air.
Click on the image to see some pictures of my kiddos.
I came screaming into this world, August 8th, 1974. I was born the day President Nixon formally announced his resignation as President of The United States. I like to think that I helped him make the decision.
I was born in the tiny town of Quincy, California and lived my first year in a one room log cabin. One room literally means that the entire cabin was one room. Leaving Quincy, my parents headed for Los Angeles and ended up living near my grandparents in Redondo Beach. We lived in Redondo for several years before moving to beautiful San Luis Obispo. From the age of four to twenty-five I enjoyed being surrounded by the mountains of SLO and ended up not only growing up in San Luis, but also going to college in town and meeting the person I would eventually marry. I attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and majored in Art & Design with my concentration in Photography and Digital Imaging. My wife Suzzi and I spent several years finishing up school before deciding to move to Ventura to find a higher paying job and be near my wife's family. I attended Azusa Pacific University in order to earn my Teaching Credential and work on my Master's Degree. I took night classes and was a substitute during the day. Substituting gave me a wide perspective on education, students, and the overall feel of a school. I substituted several times at Foothill Tech and fell in love with the school, the staff, and the sense of a student body that was in school with the desire to learn. I am fortunate for a school like Foothill because it has a lot of the technology needed in order to teach the classes that I am trained to teach. The ability to teach Digital Photography, Visual Communications and Multimedia is a rare find in a public high school.
