attended public and private schools in the Cleveland area; in 1977 he graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio with a B.A. in Studio Arts; then began his Masters Degree at Syracuse University's College of Visual and Performing Arts in Syracuse, New York, where he was awarded a Syracuse University Fellowship Grant in 1979 and 1980, and a Ford Foundation Grant; work at Syracuse focused on ceramics and printmaking, but he also developed interests in papermaking and sculpture; in 1980, he completed an M.F.A at Syracuse in Studio Art