ABOUT DR. NEON

Born January 1, 1944, in Hartford, CT. I am the elder son of an aircraft engineer and an X-Ray technician.

At age 7, I became fascinated with light as I watched a black and white photograph develop in my Father’s home photo lab.

During a three-year Army tour, I served in El Paso, TX, and Europe. I learned a lot and honed my photographic skills.

I returned from Europe and attended UTEP in El Paso, to study physics; specifically photometry, the study of light.

I bought my first Neon Plant in Austin, TX, in 1977, after developing the idea that light is art, and Neon is the best way to draw with light. I finished my degree studying art with Richard Thompson at the University of New Mexico, in 1978.

I started Doctor Neon as a business in 1980, in Austin, TX, and had a wonderful time decorating downtown 6th Street, among others.

After that, I took the show on the road, to Phoenix. I worked with Jim White, ASU Sculpture professor at the Center for Neon Art, in Scottsdale AZ.

The next Neon stop was working with Craig Kraft, a major Neon artist in Washington DC.

My next journey was back to Texas, the birthplace of Dr. Neon. Donna and I moved to Longview, in East Texas, to help her parents through their last years, from 2011 to 2017. In Longview, I was able to bring a long-disused neon shop back to life at East Texas Signs. One of our many projects was refurbishing the Marshall Cinema, with lots of colored glass and animation.

The 2017 move will be our last. Here in Las Cruces, I have established a state-of-the-art Neon system, including a triple pump, turbo molecular vacuum system. All housed in a new, 10’ ceilings studio. It is not a production facility, rather a studio for one-offs and prototypes.