About

Artist, sailor, and raconteur.

When I was a young lad, my parents had an old turn-table and a bunch of vinyl records. One of them was National Geographic’s Songs & Sounds of the Sea, my favorite. Released in 1973 the LP features a group of shantymen recording traditional work songs while underway aboard a 108 ft schooner, the s/v Shenandoah. You can hear the creak of the timbers, the whip of the wind, and the ocean lapping against the hull. It’s a joy to listen to, and pure magic to a young person. That is where my love of the sea began.

Growing up in the mountains of West Virginia, with its mist draped highlands, and lush green valleys we didn’t see the ocean much except for the summer pilgrimage to Myrtle Beach (something West Virginians still do) or to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Standing on the dunes of Kill Devil Hills I would look out at the horizon where the blue of the sky touches the deep ocean and dream of skating across the water on clipper bound for South Australia or a stolen frigate to sack the port of Charleston. One day… I thought.

In the years since I’ve become a passable blacksmith, Dungeon Master, Alchemist (yes really), scuba diver, painter, terrain builder, IT professional, and yes eventually a sailor. My terrain and miniature gaming projects vary wildly but tend to gravitate back to nautical themes of hidden jungle ruins, piracy, and corrupt colonial machinations. Heave Ho Studio is a creative outlet for my love and respect for our oceans and waterways. As the song goes, “my life, my love, and my lady is the sea.”

Fair winds and following seas.

-JR