Like most artists I’m interested in many different mediums. As a child I wanted to be a Comic Book Artist. I spent all my free time drawing heroes and villians, coming up with their detailed stories, and dreaming of the day that someone would be reading all about them. As I grew older my love for comics and everything I grew up with, Saturday morning cartoons and 80’s action movies stuck with me. In middle school I would draw on plain white T Shirts with Sharpies for all my friends. Usually covering them in the same characters I was tagging under the local bridge that we all hung out at. The shirts were a hit, and from this point on a had a new passion in my collection of passions. I would one day have my own T shirt Company. Fast Forward 13 years later. I got involved in Mixed Martial Arts. At the time most of the T Shirt companies that were making “MMA” clothing was not really my style. Not to mention in general I felt there was an overall lack of brands making shirts I wanted to wear. So I decided it was time to fulfill my dream, and I started Urban Ninja. Most of the designs are throwbacks to things I held dear from my childhood. The first time I made a T Shirt as a kid, I did purely out of wanting to wear something I felt really had something to do with me, something I wished I could buy in a store. I started Urban Ninja under the same concept. I make limited run shirts, and have only reprinted a few designs a second time. I feel this makes each shirt special.
A lot of Urban Ninjas designs come from another one of my collected passions. Film. I started making short films and high light films for some of my team mates. The T shirts are fun, but this was were I felt I really hit my stride. I had been training with Team Lloyd Irvin in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for about 2 years when the opportunity come about to film a short documentary on my good friend and team mate Mike “The Hulk” Easton. This was a busy time for me. I was training, going to school to learn more about video production, and teaching Muay Thai at 2 Team Lloyd Irvin affilliate schools, Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Elkridge MD, and Ivey League MMA in Severna Park MD. During my time in school for Video Production I had to take photography classes. The idea was to better familiarize the students with the operations of a camera of any kind. My first class was a black and white film. This was where a new passion emerged to add to the collection. Within the first few classes I fell in love photography. Film was an amazing introduction to it because the process is so involved. I became fascinated with following the photos from beggining to end. I had an incredible teacher Jacqueline Schlossman, who herself is a fantastic photographer. Later she would introduce me to the digital photgraphy world, and today remains a mentor and friend.
Currently I am the head Muay Thai Kickboxing Instructor at Crazy 88 Brazilain Jiu Jitsu, and Ivey League Mixed Martial Arts. At Crazy 88 I handle all video production, photography, graphic and t shirt design. I feel like I couldn’t ask for a better life. I’m fortunate to do all the things I love on a daily basis. I do everything in my power to make sure that passion and appreciation comes across in all my work.