John started his art career in the mid-50s when he won first prize, a rubber plant, in a 5th grade PTA poster contest in Sulphur, Louisiana. Now, 44 years later, he's still upset that his teacher took the rubber plant home for herself.

Even though he went on to achieve some degree of success as an art director, designer and illustrator, nothing has been able to heal those early emotional wounds. John wandered the backroads of American advertising agencies, designing logos, brochures, newspaper ads. . . anything to blunt the memories of that early betrayal. Eventually he found himself in Santa Fe, New Mexico, using a Macintosh computer. He co-founded the Santa Fe Mac Users Group and was a founding partner of West of the Pecos Web Design (now merged with two other firms and known as PanoramaPoint).

John co-authored The Non-Designer's Web Book with best-selling author Robin Williams and often teams up with her to give Web Graphics workshops and presentations.

"Url's Internet Cafe is a way for me to associate with a whiny, petty, self-pitying character like Url, plus wonderful people like Robin, Amanda and Browser. I've made peace with the past now and I don't look back. Oh, I suppose that every once in a while I look back just a little so that I can put things in perspective. . .

"That was supposed to be MY rubber plant, and I want it back!"