I was born on Sunday, June 18, 1944 at 9:20 in the evening in East Waterboro, Maine. My father was a milkman, and my mother was a full-time housewife. For the first 18 years of my life I was raised with two older brothers on a farm in Dayton, Maine.

Like most children, I drew copiously at an early age. I learned to focus on drawing for more than a few minutes at a time by filling in the blank edges of the Sunday bulletin during sermons at the church I attended with my family. Unlike most children approaching adolescence however, I continued to draw and develop my abilities to portray the human figure.

My early influences were (1) National Geographic's Early Life in Ancient Times series, highlighting the great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome; (2) Life magazine's numerous illustrated series, particularly The Epic of Man and The Wonders of Life on Earth, and (3) the illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post, particularly those covers by that man Rockwell. Hardly a sophisticated background in art, but a good grounding in realist illustration.

By the time I attended high school I had become familiar with Book of the Month Club's Metropolitan Museum Seminars in Art series. Through this exposure I discovered that my gut reactions to Art (spelled with a capital A) were out of tune with the times. With few exceptions the avant garde of the 20th century left me utterly cold, while the human warmth revealed in much of the art from earlier centuries through to the impressionist period touched me deeply.

I had no art training in high school. School systems in Maine during the late fifties and early sixties placed little importance on teaching such frivolous pastimes. Science, math, and sports were king. Not being much of a sportsman, I turned to math, excelled at it, and planned this as my major in college, until a guidance counselor asked me if I had ever considered going to an art school. I had apparently scored very high in art on a series of aptitude tests. My response was "No!" Upon further consideration, I decided that this would be something completely different and unexpected of me. So I applied to Rhode Island School of Design, instead of the University of Maine, and was accepted.

I majored in Apparel Design, received my BFA in 1966, served in the Air Force after graduating, and then headed off to New York City. I worked in the fashion industry, first as a designer, then as a freelance illustrator for the first six years of my eleven-year stay in NYC. At age twenty-nine, during my first Saturn return, I started painting in oils for the first time in my life. I felt the need to create something that was not subject to someone else's art direction. With this step, I felt that I had finally discovered what it was to be an ARTISTE.

Arriving at this turning point, I threw over my career as a commercial illustrator to devote myself to ART. To support this newfound painting habit, I landed a job as an invoice typist with Samuel Weiser Inc., a book publisher specializing in esoterica and Eastern philosophy, and painted in my spare time. Commercial art would not let me rest however, and within a year I was no longer typing invoices; I was designing and illustrating book covers. I created over 130 covers for Weiser and several other publishers.

When Weiser moved its publishing headquarters to York Beach, in 1980, I moved back to New England and served as Weiser's art director. I worked with a regional ballet company as scenic designer for a number of productions. I participated in several group exhibitions in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire/Kittery, Maine area, and mounted a successful one-man show while there.

In 1986 I moved to Philadelphia for a tentative two year period to study metaphysics under the mentorship of a spiritual teacher, and have chosen to live in South Philadelphia ever since. A year after moving I started Conscious World Art, an enterprise that includes publishing posters that combine art with poetry.

I continue to support my creative endeavors by working in advertising as a computer artist and designer, and I have created a number of CD/cassette covers. Although I have not actively participated in the local art scene, I have turned my studio/home into the Conscious World Art Gallery from where I sell my work paintings, drawings, photographs, and decorative lamps - directly to clients and friends. My work is included in numerous private collections in New England, New York, and Philadelphia.

Alden Cole - 2002