I have always wanted to be a great artist. When I was a child, I liked to look at comic books and fantasy art. I was a fan of Steve Ditko, John Buscema, and Boris Vallejo, and I enjoyed drawing superheroes and coloring them. In my senior year of high school, a representative from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh visited my art class and showed student work. It impressed me. Some of my friends encouraged me to go to the school, so I asked my parents if I could go, and they said yes. I was very happy! I considered doing comic and fantasy art as a career but would later change my mind.I was a good student at AIP, and my teachers often praised me. I was pleased with one particular painting I did, and my teacher said it was a good design. It was abstract, and I enjoyed doing it. I thought I would continue doing abstract art, but I decided to stick to commercial art at that point in my life.After a year at AIP, my parents asked me to return to Ohio and go to another school; they were worried about me being so far away. I decided to go to CCAD. At CCAD, I excelled at figure drawing and was good at color and design, but I struggled with painting, which I wanted to do most. After college, I finally got the hang of it. CCAD was sometimes discouraging, but I endured and got my BFA in 1991.Shortly after graduation, I saw an ad in the paper for an advertising design job at the Mansfield News Journal. I interviewed there, and they hired me. It did not pay much, but I learned much about typography and digital design there.After being at the News Journal for about two years, I saw another ad in the paper for a design and illustration job at Landoll Publishing in Ashland, Ohio. I interviewed, and they hired me as well. There I did design and illustration work for big animation and film studios. I drew, inked, and colored Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and other famous characters. And I designed covers for books for these characters as well.While at CCAD, I discovered a passion for paintings. The Columbus Museum of Art is across the street from the school, and I would visit it to look at them. It didn't matter to me if the paintings were from the Renaissance or the Impressionist period or if they were from the Modern period; I loved looking at paintings! I painted traditionally for several years, but now I do digital abstracts, and I'm happy with them.For one-of-a-kind originals, please email me at campioarts@gmail.com.Thank you,Michael B. Johnson