Jeffrey William Lynch is a Post-Modern Renaissance Man. 
He is a writer, a singer of songs, a painter and sculptor and tries to live his life
as a vessel of light; to shine into the darkness of the shadows of our
sometimes chaotic human experience.   To help others find HOPE,and renewal, 
this today is his purpose as an Artist and human being.
 
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 6th. day of the 6th. month close to 6
a.m., no less, in the year, 1962.  His mother, JoJo Breckel, (an artist
herself), told him he was a very special child, the first born son.  He
has two sisters, Kelli Ann Dreier and Molli Ann Ferrins.
 
He never met his blood father, John Robert Sawyer, who was also a
very talented painter.  When Jeff was 10 years old, he was told the truth
about his real father and how he had another life as a serial Bank
Robber in the midwest in the early 1960s.  His father was on the FBI's
10 most wanted list in 1961.  After he was eventually caught in a
bizarre set of circumstances, he served over 20 years at The United
States Penitentiary, Leavenworth which was the largest maximum
security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. 
While in prison his father became a very notable prisoner/artist.  He
painted landscapes that were hung in various State and Federal
buildings.  One painting hung in the U.S. Capital Building for several
years.
 
His parents met when his mother was just 19.  His father was 36.  He
swept her off her feet and they married not long after they met and left
for Florida on their Honeymoon.  His mother told him he was a
charming man that had a nice new Lincoln with a trunk full of cash,
what more could a young girl ask for?
 
It was on the Honeymoon in Florida, while his father was on the run,
that Jeff was conceived.  His mother said she had no idea that her new
found love was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.  But after moving
from motel to motel, sometimes 5 or more times a day, she became
suspicious.  She told Jeff later in life, that when she became nervous
about his erratic behavior, she called home. 
 
Jeff's Grandfather, (his mother's father) was a Sgt. on the Cincinnati
Police Department at the time and had taken a wine glass from the
rushed wedding ceremony and took it downtown to have the
fingerprints analyzed.  While they were waiting for the results from the
Feds.  Jeff's father's photo was printed in newspapers from coast to
coast.  One of his Aunts saw the picture in the Cincinnati Enquirer and
informed the family. 
 
When Jeff's mother was told the truth, she got on a bus and made it
home safely.  His father was arrested in Arizona when a uniformed
police officer recogonized the car from an APB from the FBI.
 
Several weeks after Jeff was born, his mother, embarassed by the
situation, left her son with her parents to raise and took off to NYC to
start a career and new life as a High Fashion Model, which she became.
She worked for Eileen Ford and lived the life of a dream, while his
grandparents raised him.  She modeled in New York and Paris and
traveled around the world working with some of the most notable
Masters of Photography of that era.  She spent several months in Africa
with Irving Penn, worked for Richard Avedon on numerous occasions,
Helmut Newton and others.
 
She re-married another model she met in New York, (Ed Lynch), and
they returned to Cincinnati to settle down when Jeff was 6.  Ed Lynch
adopted Jeff and gave him his last name.  He did his best to fill the
shoes of the dad Jeff never had but turned out to be a verbally and
abusive man that tried to raise Jeff, until the age of 12. 
 
That's when that marriage fell apart and his mother loaded up her
Oldsmobile convertible with his two younger sisters, two dogs, three
cats, a parakeet, hampster and turtle, and all the clothes they could
squeeze in.  They made the drive to Florida once again, to move back
in with his Grandparents.
 
Jeff attended Jr. High and High School in St. Petersburg and worked
full-time at night at the St. Petersburg Times, in their Newsphoto
Department, as a lab technician.  There he developed a passion for
photography and was taught to develop film and hand printed all the
photos that were published the following day in the Newspaper.  He
excelled and won a full scholarship to the University of South Florida
for fine art photography.
 
After graduating High School, he turned down the scholarship and
enlisted in the United States Army Reserve to become a Green Beret.   
He spent almost two years on active duty for training and successfully
completed the U.S. Army Special Forces Medical Program.
 
After the Army he served in the United States Coast Guard on the front
lines of the "WAR ON DRUGS," aboard the United States Coast Guard
Cutter "Steadfast"  home ported out of St. Petersburg, Florida.  In the
three years he served during the mid-1980s, (when Crack Cocaine was
emerging in virtually every inner-city in America.)  The "Steadfast" was
underway over 200 days out the year trying to interdict the flow of
illegal drugs into our country.  During that time the "Steadfast" didn't
seize one gram of Cocaine.
 
After an Honorable discharge from the Coast Guard, he attended
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERITY where he studied Cinema and Public
Relations.  While at OHIO STATE during his senior year, he was a
National Finalist in the EASTMAN FELLOWSHIP for
CINEMATOGRAPHY, (one of the most prestigious awards on the
collegiate level for this craft and Art form.)
 
After college he traveled around the world including China, Australia,
New Zealand, Germany, Central America and throughout the United
States.
 
AT THE AGE OF 36, HE BECAME ADDICTED TO CRACK COCAINE
SOON AFTER THE FIRST TIME HE TRIED IT. 
 
Over the next several years the disease of addiction took him to an
entirely different world and eventually left him homeless on the street.
Through the help of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tampa,
Florida, which showed him how to get back on the proper path, he's
been clean and sober for 4 years again.
 
Today he lives in Paradise, on Anna Maria Island, off the west coast of
Florida, a block from the beach.  His home is sort of an informal Art
gallery and studio and a "Post-modern" (Clean and Sober),  60s Hippy
type recovery house.
 
He helps other addicts that were in the same predicament, find the
same spiritual path, by bringing them into his home and showing them
what was so freely given to him.  He says this is his primary purpose in
Life today.  He believes that's why we're here, to help each other. 
If you listen to his song, "I'm Going Back to Kentucky," you can hear
that message in the lyrics.  He says that when he wrote it, that he
believes it was a gift from the creator, because he was doing what God
wants us all to do, and that is to love and help one another.