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Paul was born into a close-knit family, with a total of six other siblings,
and grew up in the small town of Wyoming, Minnesota until the age of twenty.
He started painting at a young age. He recalls being fascinated while watching his mother,
Linda, painting a Christmas scene complete with a sleigh, presents, and a starry-night sky on earrings the size of a quarter. It was his mother's love of art that inspired Paul to pick up a brush and try his hand at doing painting. It was being surrounded by inspiration and love
that kept Paul doing it. One of the things that Paul says probly made him take the
path of Impressionistic painting was when he was five years old, after a rain storm,
Paul was drawning a a picture of the mud puddles from the kitchen window. His sister Christy looked over his shoulder and instead of telling him that mud puddles aren't pink and gold, she told him that his use of color was really beautiful.
Paul was home-schooled for his entire education. Which gave him alot of time to explore a variety of hobbies. Which included: painting, piano, photography, acting, and landscaping. In 1999, he placed in the top 25 in the nation for his piano playing in the NWC fine arts festival, and from 1995 through 1999 Paul took home blue ribbons from the Minnesota State Fair for his oil paintings. The most heart wrenching moment for Paul was on January 5th 2000, when his dad received a phone call telling them that they needed to go the hospital... there had been an accident. It was in those hours that everything Paul had ever learned about God came into play for him. Paul's mom was killed instantly in that car wreck, and his two brothers were put into comas. Paul's 18 year old brother Joe never came out of his and passed away three months later. Paul's youngest adopted brother, Isaiah, survived the accident and continues to bring his zest for life into the lives of Paul's entire family.
Just one week before that accident, Paul's mom told him that she had been listening to a book author talking on the radio about his life. How the author had been the nerd in school and wasn't athletic, but went on to become an acclaimed writer. "I think your like that Paul," she said "Don't try to be what other people want you to be, be who you are, and who God made you to be. Pursue your dreams." With those words still in his ears, Paul continues to pursue his goals in the arts." |
