Derek has many roles as husband, father, artist, musician, and pastor living in Portland, Oregon. He is an avid urbansketcher with pen, ink, and watercolor but also works in acrylic and oil paint.
Born in 1983, Derek's journey into art started at a young age as his love for dinosaurs lead him to regularly sketch the illustrations in his books. Instead of tracing the images he would copy what he saw and reproduce them in his own drawings. By 10 years old he was working with acrylic paint to make some small works for family.
In high school Derek was privileged to various artistic opportunities thanks to the large number of classes available. He took all the classes that he could in drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, and independent study. His passion for art and talent in it grew because of the dedication of two teachers: Jan Rimerman and Cameron Stuart. Their care, encouragement, challenge, and instruction helped foster a deeper appreciation for visual arts. During his time in high school, Derek participated in multiple gallery shows, both at the school and in the community, as well as helped Rimerman curate for the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts. Derek would graduate from Tigard High School in 2002.
Portland Community College was the first step in Derek's post high school education. There he continued to take all the art electives that he could, adding watercolor, life drawing, and mixed media to his repertoire. While there was a desire to make his talents in art a career, Derek did not proceed with any formal visual arts degree. He would transfer his credits to Hope International University in order to pursue an education in biblical studies, majoring in youth ministry and eventually taking part-time and full-time positions as a pastor. Derek continued to express himself artistically during the remainder of his time at HIU.
Post graduation became of time of transition in moving between ministry jobs as well as marrying his best friend, Krista Mullally in 2007. He would move from his school in Fullerton, CA to Tigard, OR to Bullhead City, AZ and back to Portland, OR. For over 10 years Derek would rarely pick up a pencil or brush to produce any artwork instead focusing on music, marriage, ministry, and eventually his two children.
In 2019, while working as a Youth Pastor at St. Johns Christian Church, the leadership at the church would grant Derek a 3 month sabbatical from ministry in order to rest, recharge, and reflect on life and work. He used this time intentionally to reignite his passion for art and started urbansketching as an active hobby while also establishing a painting studio in the garage. Derek signed up for and attended many local urbansketching workshops throughout the pandemic of 2020 and taking commissions for artwork from family and friends.
Today, Derek regularly works in pen and ink, watercolor, and acrylic as well as starting to discover oil as a new medium. He likes to produce paintings with loose and open brushwork and often mixes between still life studies, urban architecture, and plein air landscapes.