Born in Detroit in 1975, K.C. first came to Alaska in 1999 to work as a teacher in a remote village on the Lower Yukon River. There he met and worked with the pastel artist/subsistance fisherman Jon Barbar who had a strong influence on his work. In the intervening years since then K.C. has traveled and lived in Asia, painting, drawing and spending as much time in the mountains as possible.

Never having taken an art class past the high school level, K.C. paid for university schooling by working as a tattoo artist in several locations around the Detroit area and also overseas, his current obsession with ink is a holdover from the time spent tattooing. “Human skin is an incredible medium to work with, the symbiosis that comes about from creating works that originate in another person’s mind and display on their own skin really opened my eyes to the communality of artistic expression. Nothing happens in isolation.”

Currently K.C. works full-time as an intensive needs special education teacher with the Anchorage School District and as a full time father of three very active boys. In the few moments of spare time he can steal (usually from 5 a.m. to whenever the boys wake up on Saturday and Sunday mornings) he paints carves and prints woodblocks.

His lifelong dream is to have his art on a midnight sun brewery label.