I was born in 1961 in Phoenix, Arizona, and realized my passion for art very early on. As a kid I would draw everything I could on anything I could find. I knew that I wanted to be an artist as far back as I can remember. The creation of art has always been my ambition, and as far as I can remember, there never really was a choice about it. And that's just fine by me.

When I was young, my father was in construction which kept us moving; always staying in the lower 48 United States, but literally relocating two and three times a year. Prior to ninth grade I don't think I went to any one school for a complete school year. In seventh grade I went to school in Colorado, Wisconsin and Illinois - typical year. That summer we moved to Florida, and then on to Oregon before eighth grade started. As a kid, I guess that you figure everyone does this - you don't really know any better. Once we moved to Oregon (for at least the sixth or eighth time), my parents decided to stay put for a while — at least until my brother, sister and I made it through High School. Ironically, after the three of us finished high school, my parents moved again (and again a few times), just like before.

I guess when you move as much as we did, you lose a lot of things along the way. There never was enough room with five of us living in a cab-over camper on the back of a pick-up truck, or on special occurrences, a travel trailer. These weren't large trailers either - if we had a 20' trailer it was a big one for us. In the course of all the travel and moving I'd seen every state West of the Mississippi River before I was in high school from the front seat of a pickup several times (this was before the days of club cab trucks). As a result we didn't usually get to take many things with us when we moved. There were many times I can recall my dad literally saying "pack your things... we leave in the morning". What was at school stayed remained in the lockers behind. Usually, most everything else got left behind too, but the one thing that always went along for the ride was my pencils and drawing pads.

As we moved from state-to-state I would find that art was a great way to fill the time and meet others - to fit in if only for a while. I would draw and create coloring books and usually the teachers and secretaries at my new school could be convinced to make copies that I could sell to the other kids. At some schools I'd design mascot patches which my mom and I painted in the evenings and I sold them at school for extra money. Eventually, I'd create QSL cards for my dad's CB buddies. Later, I would draw portraits at those CB rallies for a few dollars here and there.

In junior high school I discovered painting murals as a result of a great artist in residence who was participating in the Artist In The Schools Program. Lanny Little was that artist and I learned a lot from him. He was there to teach students to paint murals and I was lucky enough to be included in that program. Painting murals turned out to be a real blast for me! I really got a kick out of painting large.

When I was in the eighth grade I also discovered airbrushing. I saved every dollar and bought a Binks Wren and a cheap compressor at the local hobby store in Oregon City. Airbrushes added a new dynamic to painting. They were fast, colors could be blended easily, and they were cool. I was hooked! I've continued to use airbrushes since then to express my art, although I've long since outgrown that old Binks Wren.

Over the years I think I've tried just about every airbrush known to man, and still own a few of my old ones. In 1983, my girlfriend (and soon to be wife), Kathryn, gave me an Iwata HP-C airbrush as a gift. I wanted one since the first time I saw it at the local art supply store, and she knew it (it's probably all I ever talked about). What a fantastic surprise (she called it my "un-birthday" gift), and in getting the Iwata, I became a dedicated Iwata user and evangelist. Iwata airbrushes are all that I use now when I paint, and my work has been featured in many of their magazine ads and catalogs.

Anyway, back to the story... I continued to airbrush, did a lot of graphic design, and in 1989 went to work full-time for Hollywood Entertainment Corporation (dba Hollywood Video stores) in Portland, Oregon as their first Creative Art Director. My relationship started out a typical designer/client scenario and grew from there. I had created their logo, did all their graphic design, and painted murals in their stores for the first three stores. It was inevitable for me to go to work for them. I painted hundreds of murals for the store in my five years on staff as their resident artist. You can see a few of those murals in the Hollywood Murals section of this site.

At Hollywood Video, I established technique and speed with an airbrush, sometimes painting three and four murals a week. In 1993, the Marilyn Monroe and Steve Martin murals that I painted while at Hollywood Video received the first place award in Airbrush Action magazine's Seventh Annual Airbrush Excellence Competition (Signs + Murals Category). The T-Rex and Elvis/John Wayne murals were featured in a Airbrush Action 3, The Best New Airbrush Illustration by Airbrush Action magazine. And, in 1995, an article in Airbrush Magazine featured many of the Hollywood Video murals.

I left Hollywood Video in 1993 (after having been there for 5-1/2 years) to create A.D. Cook + Associates, Inc., a creative group specializing in graphic design and print management services in Portland, OR. Kathryn and I operated the business in co-operation with our first-rate design team until September 2002. We did a lot of great design for a handful of clients, and had a lot of fun at the same time. It was hard work, but there were more than a few moments of comedy thrown in the mix. Iwata-Medea Airbrush Products was a great client during that time. We handled their design and advertising for over eight years, and Cindy, my senior designer still handles most of their design needs. Additional clients included Artool Art Products, PIAA Lights, Crimson Trace Lasergrips, WebTrends Software, and a few others. You can still view graphic design projects online at www.adcook.com/gdmain.htm.

While running the design business, I decided to make the steady transition to a full-time art career. It was time to phase out of design as a full-time vocation. After all, painting is still my passion. As an avid motorcycle enthusiast, I was inspired to depict motorcycles in my art, and I created a series of paintings featuring American-made motorcycles. Indian Summer, my fifth painting of the series, attracted the attention of Indian Motorcycle Corporation in Gilroy, California. We were negotiating a licensing deal with them for several months, and had a contact to be their officially licensed artist just before they closed their doors (to our surprise) in September 2003. Had Indian Motorcycle Corporation stayed in business, I would most-likely be creating paintings of their bikes resulting in posters sold through their retail stores nation wide.

Undaunted, yet fulfilled with motorcycles as an artistic subject matter, I became interested in another subject matter; primarily life-size and dramatically larger realistic figurative works. For me, this is a return to a subject matter that is always fresh, new, inspiring and challenging. I had been doing figurative works for years prior to meeting my wife in 1983 and put the subject matter on hold for considerable time. I also created several nudes in other mediums for a while in '02 and '03. Those were pastel pieces, and it quickly became obvious to me that the way to create these was in paint.

In October, 2003, we moved our studio and offices to Tigard, Oregon, just outside of Portland. At 1,700 sq. ft., the new studio was large and flexible enough to serve the purposes of photography, airbrush workshops, and of course the creation of large scale realistic fine art paintings, most of which are featured on this site.

In October, 2005, we closed the Tigard studio and sold our home in preparation of full-time travel to create art, photography, and design a book for Iwata-Medea on airbrushing, written by Pamela Shanteau.

In November 2006, we landed in viva Las Vegas, which has quickly become home for us. We now live and work in Vegas and regularily show art at galleries across the United States, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Tahoe, Hawaii, Denver, and Key West.

Our adventure is currently being journaled on AirbrushTour, which also serves as our Blog site.