My career has been marked by a series of firsts—first NY show, first sold-out print, first art fair, first magazine commission, first book cover, first book, first media award, first television appearance, first appearance on the side of a building, first appearance on a rodeo ticket…

This is about a recent first that came in the form of an email from AARP (just days before my 50th birthday) that had nothing to do with my impending membership eligibility. It was from Michael Wichita, Interim Director of Photography at AARP Media, inviting me to work on a print and iPad project for AARP Magazine. Seeing this as both ironic and serendipitous, I accepted.

Unfortunately, due to no fault of mine, the project was killed by AARP before it got past the 3rd proofing stage. Things like this happen all of the time. For example, in 2011, I signed on to do a huge project for the site bookish.com. After two weeks of work, the entire design team was fired and the new art director decided not to continue in the direction things were going. Even though I was compensated (as I will be in this instance), it’s just one of the pitfalls of working freelance. That said, I must profess my gratitude to Michael Wichita for lobbying on my behalf for this project.  Who knows? We may cross paths again someday. In the meantime, I offer a window into my working process.