about me








I was born in the great state of Nebraska. My grandfather, after serving in WWI, went back home to farm and raise his family. Then at a young age, my “wicked” stepfather (Navy) took me away from Nebraska. When he was done serving we moved to Virginia.

I am blessed to now have a wonderful wife and two great boys. Growing up, Nebraska football was my connection to my state and my family back home. I will always be a Cornhusker, but here is where I met my wife and where my children were born. Virginia is now our home.

I have always drawn from a young age, mostly cartooning. My early training came in the form of the Sunday comics. While most children read them, I would have paper and pencil in hand and draw the ones that caught my eye. My desire to cartoon now extends to my passion for caricature wood carving. I have always loved the movies and music from the 40's. This may explain my somewhat slapstick humor shown in my illustrations. My goal is to hone my carving skills and begin to transform my cartoons to carvings. Since I have gotten back into carving I have gained some wonderful friends in the carving community. I have also through encouragement of my family and my carving mentor entered the Caricature Carvers of America competition. My first time entering was in 2012 when I received my first ribbon ever, a fifth place. Since then I have received five more ribbons counting the most recent and my best yet a 2nd place at the 2015 competition.  My blog is an effort to chronicle my journey and share with those who stop by the lessons learned on the way.

Ricardo-monk-a-bond