Establishing World Peace

    Most biographies are written in the "third-person" perspective, where one person writes about someone else. Since I am the author of the website, I felt it would be inappropriate to write about myself in the third-person narrative — I believe this would be deceptive. As such, I wrote about my accomplishments in the "first-person" point of view, which can sometimes appear to be self-centered, which I am not.

 

    My objective in writing this biography is to show that I'm qualified and intelligent enough to comprehend the true state of our country and the world, and I realize what is required to bring about much-needed change. I dislike even writing the words "I and my." This is the only page on the website where you will see these two words. 

 

    I am very proud of my accomplishments, but pride comes in two forms — authentic pride and hubristic pride, which are polar opposites. I am very proud to state that I have authentic pride — the pride in one's achievements. My many accomplishments bring me great peace and satisfaction. Material objects are nice, but they didn't bring me pride.

     

    I am foremost an electronics tech, an artist, and a jack of all trades. I cherish science, logic, facts, the rule of law, and truth. I have absorbed at least two hours of in-depth analysis of current news, court filings and judgments, Congressional hearings, and national news every weeknight for several decades. I am well versed in national and world events and can only wish that all of our citizens could truthfully state the same.

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    I see myself as being an equal to everyone regardless of their race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or beliefs. When I see another person, I do my very best to think of them as a soul that lives inside an outer shell that will be cast away when they return to where ever we originated from. I try not to have any preconceived notions of who they really are or how they became that way. No one has a say in which body they will inhabit in this world.

 

    I have always been a lover of nature and human rights, but I have been forced to become an environmentalist and a political activist for civil, human, and women's rights. I have always been a very scientifically minded person who enjoys studying physics, quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and other aspects of science such as Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, but I am now forced to stand up for science over conspiracy theories, propaganda, lies, and misinformation.

 

    I was born in the state of Washington in 1958 as the fifth of nine siblings. As a young child, my family moved to Southeastern Idaho near the Teton Mountain Range. With nine children in the family, our father worked two jobs just to keep the family clothed and food on the table. My mother had her hands full raising nine kids, but she never complained; it was seldom that she ever raised her voice.

 

    At the age of eight years old, I joined the Boy Scouts. By the age of 14, I had risen through the ranks and earned the highest award possible — my Eagle Scout metal along with well over 100 awards, badges, and patches. As a teenager, I taught honesty, correct morals and standards, and multiple life skills to literally thousands of Boy Scouts at Scout Camps around Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

 

    My father's kidneys failed in 1971 when I was 13 years old, and I became my father's right hand; I am so thankful that he taught me responsibility at an early age. At the time, I resented having so many responsibilities, but this is what made me who I am today.

 

    At 14 years old, I became a kidney dialysis tech for my father and learned how to assemble, run, disassemble, clean, and reassemble his various prototypes of archaic "mad scientist" dialysis machines that we had in our home throughout the upcoming years. My dad died five years later as a result of cascading organ failures.

 

    From the ages of 16 to 17, I worked at a prestigious restaurant and worked my way up through the ranks from dishwasher to manager, where I oversaw 18 employees. I calculated all of the business's books, handled employee management, scheduling and time cards, inventory, and ordering of the food and supplies, and trained the employees there and at the chain's other locations, along with training their managers.
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   I excelled in art throughout many years of art classes in high school. I possessed a promising career as an artist, but I greatly worried that selling artwork wouldn't pay the bills. Instead of pursuing my true passion of becoming a realism artist, I followed in the footsteps of my older brother who was also fascinated by electronics. As such, I joined the Navy to learn electronics theory and repair at the best electronics schools in the world.

 

    As a side note to younger people, follow your true dreams! Actor Jim Carey said it best, "You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love." I often wonder where I would be now, had I followed my true dream long ago of becoming an artist. After living the life I have had — with a wonderful wife, a son that became a computer and electronics genius, a second son that is a mechanical engineer, and a successful daughter that owns her own psychology practice — I wouldn't change a thing.
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    In 1979, I fell in love with Hawaii and Hawaiian artwork while stationed at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, where I served on the USS Rathburn as an electronics repair technician. I maintained and repaired every piece of electronics on the warship, specializing in satellite communications systems, radar systems, encryption and decryption equipment, and central computer systems.

 

    The "Aloha Spirit" of the Hawaiian Islands captured my soul. The tropical atmosphere, the Pacific Ocean, trade winds, and Hawaiian seascape paintings added to the allure of the island, and I dreamed that someday after leaving the Navy I would live in the Hawaiian islands and fulfill my dreams of being a successful artist.
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   After serving in the Navy, I opened and operated several businesses simultaneously in Southeastern Idaho, including my 35-year business Burtenshaw's TV and Electronics Repair, Burtenshaw's Auto Restoration and Paint, and Burtenshaw's Antique Furniture Refinishing. I desired to become even more financially secure, so while running these businesses, I also purchased many investment rental properties using investor Carelton Sheet's self-taught "no money down" techniques.

 

    Using the skills I had learned all of my life, I remodeled every condo, house, and apartment complex building that I owned with the help of my brothers and a few relatives, and became a landlord for over 20 families at once. I kept the books and prepared the taxes on all of my rentals, maintained them and their properties, and performed every function that was needed as a landlord for these families. I structured the payments so that the properties were paying for themselves and would be paid off within 15 years.

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    I have become a jack of all trades including all manners of carpentry and woodwork; I am skilled at structural engineering, architectural and blueprint design, house framing, vinyl flooring, carpet laying, shingle and metal roofing, sheetrock laying, vinyl house siding, electrical wiring, plumbing, all manners of television and electronics repair, auto mechanics, and rebuilding engines.

 

    I am also proficient at appliance repair, auto restoration, auto upholstery, auto body and paint, glass and window work, furniture refinishing, foundation and cement laying, asphalt laying, landscaping, bookkeeping for all of my businesses, website design, artwork, personal and business tax preparation, among other skills.

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    In 2006, I became heavily involved with politics and the state of the world and the planet, and I began writing books on addressing and solving the main issues that plagued our nation, the world, and the planet's environment and its ecosystems, which were published from 2009 to 2011.

 

    My books included chapters on the economy, housing, healthcare reform, our education systems, terrorism and wars, climate change and global warming, the trashing of our oceans, lands, and atmosphere, toxic chemicals, population growth, our outdated voting systems, and nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

 

    I had always dreamed of moving to Maui and pursuing the art career that I left behind when I joined the Navy. I taught myself how to airbrush and paint with acrylics in 2006, and soon afterward I showed a photograph of my very first painting to the most successful artists in Hawaii — Christian Lassen and Roy Gonzalez Tabora.

 

    Both of the artists asked the same exact question, "What am I looking at? Are you one of the windsurfers?" I replied that it was a photo of my very first painting. Both were in shock and stated, "I can't believe that's a painting. It looks like a photograph! You need to get over here to Hawaii and paint!"

 

    This gave me hope of becoming an artist in Maui. I had just begun promoting my Hawaiian-themed artwork online when the economic collapse of 2008 occurred. Seventeen of the best art galleries closed in Maui, and it took many years for the art world to recover there. My dreams of moving to Maui and painting Hawaiian seascapes were smashed to pieces. 

 

    With a gentle push from my wife Kim, we finally made the move to Maui, Hawaii in early 2016 in order to fulfill my lifelong dream of painting Hawaiian seascapes here on the island. We sold almost everything we had, and I turned over my 35-year electronics repair shop to family members who had worked there for me as electronics repair techs for decades.         

 

    In 2017, I began teaching myself how to paint with oils. It took several years to create a small portfolio of extremely detailed oil paintings, and I eventually built an art website from scratch. In early 2020, I was just about to launch my art career here in Maui, when COVID hit and once again destroyed all my plans of becoming an artist in Hawaii. This is when I once again turned my efforts to achieve my second dream — resolving our country and the world's issues.

 

    My realism paintings can be seen at my website — BurtenshawArt.com. I look forward to accomplishing the goals set in this website, so that I may someday return to a peaceful life of painting Hawaiian seascapes once again. For now, I am excepting the reality that assisting in changing the way the world operates may have been my destiny all along.

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    All of my life experiences and skills have made me who I am today. I am proud to say that I have turned my sights to assist in transforming the world into a place where we start caring about every person around the globe, initiating the eradication of all dictators, launching a campaign to end all wars, repairing the damage we have inflicted upon the planet, and aiding in bringing about world peace.

 

    I strongly believe that everyone can assist in transforming these dreams into realities, and we will indeed accomplish our goals of establishing world peace, restoring the planet, and awakening human harmony. Please join the evolution.

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