I’ve been living in New Zealand since 1986, a watershed period in my life. I grew up in the US, but I’ve long since stopped thinking of myself as an American.

I was raised in the very middle of North America, Moorhead, Minnesota, to be exact – just across the river from Fargo. Yes, that Fargo (movie/TV series). Basically monocultural, with deadly-cold winters, deadly-hot summers, mosquitos and tornados. My parents instilled in me values that have served me well throughout my life – curiosity, confidence, respect for others, a fundamental sense of happiness and humility. They piqued my interests in science, art, music, creating things and understanding how things are put together and work.

Education was a strong force in the community. I graduated from university with a major in physics in 1964. There was a lot of scholarship money around at that time for studying science. I loved physics and I could get paid to study. Which I did until I was 27 years old, achieving Masters and PhD degrees in physics.

After finishing my PhD I taught for a few years at a small university at a very meagre salary. I was in my early 30s. I liked teaching, but I decided I wasn’t going to live that “close to the edge” for the rest of my life. So, I decided to get a business degree. I was fortunate to be accepted by MIT’s prestigious Sloan School of Management, which opened many doors for me. I chose to work in “smallish”, high-tech companies where I held upper-management/executive positions. It was an exciting time – high-tech, high growth, and high incentives.

At that point I was married and had two children, but then became divorced. In 1984 a friend arranged a blind date for me with Susan. We immediately fell in love and decided to get married. We soon discovered that each of us had previously “flirted” with the idea of moving to NZ. It was appealing to us in terms of safety from guns and other issues (e.g. NZ’s non-nuclear policy, a more egalitarian society, socialised medicine, etc.).

We came and we haven’t looked back. (If you want to see a bit about Susan, search “Susan Jacobs Napier”. You’ll find she is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and has a building named after her.)

In our time here we discovered wonderful NZ and Polynesian art, and we were fortunate enough to be able to purchase some of those works. Years ago I befriended Napierite Allen Maddox and had purchased a number of his “X” paintings. I appreciated his productivity from such a simple constraining shape. When I began to paint seriously, I decided to limit myself to using only straight lines, a single circle, and unblended colours. I haven’t run out of ideas yet, and I still find that framework to be creatively interesting.