Biography

Ken grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, graduated from the University of Kansas, studied abroad in the UK and attended Atelier Lack in Minneapolis. He worked with animator Don Bluth in Dublin, Ireland and Walt Disney Feature Animation-Florida as a layout artist and background painter. Animated film credits include A Troll in Central Park, Thumbelina, Trail Mix-up, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, John Henry, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, Brother Bear and Curious George. Ken has created concepts and artwork for video games, theme parks and the US Military, and has painted portraits and equestrian art. His work is displayed in private collections, museums and theme parks. As an educator, he has taught homeschool students online and is currently a professor of Illustration with Ringling College of Art and Design.

Thoughts on History

I stood on the moldering remains of Hadrian’s wall, which was built by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago to protect the northern border of Britain, and felt like I was looking through a portal into an ancient world. To the north, I could see barns and fences built with stones scavenged from the wall long after it was abandoned by Rome. Those newer structures had themselves become part of ancient history. It was like studying the concentric age rings of an old tree. As the persistent winds whipped across the old stones, which had been cut and carried by Roman soldiers, I found myself pondering the lives of those who had once occupied these lands. The words of G.M. Trevelyn, featured in a nearby museum, echoed my own thoughts:

The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once upon this earth, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now

all gone, one generation vanishing after another, gone as utterly as we ourselves will shortly be, like ghosts at cockcrow.

I marveled at this fact of history, that we are interconnected with people of the past and share many of the same experiences, thoughts and emotions; however, the unwelcome reminder that we all share the same end nearly caused me to

despair. Some years later, I read a startling prophecy in the book of Isaiah which foretold an end to this common fate:

And he (the Lord) will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces.

700 years later-on that same mountain-Christ was crucified.

“…He was pierced for our transgressions,” Isaiah prophesied, “he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah called Him Immanuel, which means “God with us." He had come to give his life as a ransom and “make many to be accounted righteous.”

According to St. Paul, He was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Christ Jesus “...abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

What marvelous news. No need to despair.

Sonnet by Michelangelo

(This poem was written by the artist as he carved a Pietà for his own tomb.

While painting and teaching for a summer in Florence, Italy, I had the

opportunity to see this beautiful sculpture at The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.)

The course of my life has brought me now

Through a stormy sea, in a frail ship,

To the common port where, landing

We account for every deed, wretched or holy.

So that finally I see

How wrong the fond illusion was

That made art my idol and my King,