Darren Minke, Creative Director

Darren’s love for artwork began at an early age when he started sketching the various bugs and animals he would drag into the house… much to his mother’s dismay.  He soon progressed to painting scantily clad women, which put her mind at ease.

Somewhere along the line, he was brainwashed into believing that being a doctor was a good idea; perhaps it was his mom’s revenge.  After doing four years hard time at the maximum security correctional facility known as Texas A&M, he managed to receive degrees in Biology and Psychology with a minor in dealing with institutional bureaucratic BS.  He was then wooed by the prospects of a life of ease and plenty promised by enrolling at Penn State Medical school, which he promptly declined for the much more interesting offer of being a starving artist.

Several years and many angry creditors later, Mr. Minke decided that the “starving” part of the job description was not quite as romantic as it seemed.  And besides, he was beginning to tire of his addiction to paint fumes.  It was at this point that Darren seized upon the idea of becoming a “commercial” artist – because that was where the money was and where dreams come true.  All he needed was one of them fancy computing devices, so he picked up a trusty Apple IIc with its blinding speed and massive memory banks and began using those inch wide pixels to create the most fabulously detailed masterpieces the world has ever seen.  Unfortunately most of those were lost to the world when he left his floppy disk in the back window of his car on a hot day.

Eventually Darren dethawed from the ice age he had been living in and realized that computers were more than glorified word processors and that they even could be used to make “real” artwork.  Eventually he even discovered that there were cameras that could make pictures appear on the computer and programs to make them change colors and move and make noise and be seen by millions over the internet.  Thus a star was born…but he still paints from time to time (shhh…)

See Darren’s Portfolio