At 46, Gene Gryniewicz is a self-taught artist. "Entirely self-taught," he cautions, "but learning more every day ... I learned everything I know so far from comic books, my wife and Paul Reszel ... and Bil Arnold ... though not necessarily in that order. I know there's a lot more they haven't even thought of yet. I'd kind of like to learn that first, then repay their favors." A poet also, he claims, with delusions of literature, he hopes to trade on these twin 'defects' as far as he can carry them; then, "when we've all grown up, I think I might learn how to fly, or own a coffee shop somewhere ... or start a community of hermits."

His illustrations have appeared in Aberations, Bizarre Bazaar '92, '93 and '94, CrazyQuilt Literary Quarterly, Crosscurrents, Forbidden Lines, Gaunlet, GoodWitch Stories, Neophyte, Prisoners of the Night, Renegade, Riverside Quarterly, Science Fiction Eye, Small Pond Magazine and Vision International. He has illustrated chapbooks for Tal and Telstar Publications, One Tree Press, Third Lung Press and Merrimack Books. His work was chosen to be included in Writer's Digest's 1995 Poet's Market and 1996 Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market.

He recently turned his hand and eye to photography "in a vague attempt to get things, finally, to look like the things they're supposed to." The pictures featured here proffer that first step. "Of course it's not enough; one must 'tamper,' afterall ... ." The result is to pull scanned photos into programs like PageMaker and Photo-Shop and to "tweak" them. "It's an effort I've only begun to undertake."