For years his father brought him to the top pediatric doctors in the country. They were all baffled by his condition. After visiting with the preeminent pediatric neurologist in the United States, it was decided that the condition was Freidriech’s Ataxia; and that he would later die from it by age 18. Needless to say, that diagnosis was incorrect.

Being a full professor at Skidmore College, his father saw that potentially time was limited for his only son. So he decided to travel with Justin across the country, stopping at nearly every zoological garden and National Park, from New York to San Diego. Justin’s love of, and fascination with, the natural world was at the time all consuming.

Philip and Justin would routinely travel across the United States and deep into Mexico, going as far as Guatemala and taking in the world as it came. “It seemed like each June the tent would just appear in the roof rack, and we'd be off in the civic. It was a great thing to do for a third grader, those times really opened me up to life, far more than school ever could.”

When his father passed away in 1997, Justin began pursuing his dream of graduating from college in earnest. During the interim years Justin began traveling to South East Asia a month at a time. Learning languages and customs to the point of using his newly acquired Thai language skills to complete the foreign language requirement at Skidmore College. Eventually achieving his Bachelors of Science degree in 2001. While at Skidmore he settled on a Major of Business, with a Minor of Studio Art. During his senior year he would often apologize to his business professors for, “probably going in a different direction...”.

It was his time after Skidmore which really forced him to sharpen his graphic design and creative skills. Being for the most part an unemployed freelance graphic designer in a town of under 20,000 people, there was little consistent use for his skills locally. But rather than give up he began working on his own projects independently which would often culminate in a one man show at a local coffeehouse. “Silvers was my personal favorite, 20 photographs taken between 1983 and 1998, I dedicated it to my father. Putting my favorite shot of him by the side door, so his ghost could leave if it wanted.” The show was a huge success, and he actually sold a number of pieces to local collectors.

Equal to the success of his first solo exhibition, was the failure of his second public show, entitled: Parity. "The reason I got the space was that an artist had cancelled at the last minute." Justin created 25 brand new pieces for this show in less than 3 weeks while still managing to run everything surrounding it. "It was exhausting. I'll never do that again."

His third and most recent public exhibition was entitled: Resonance. A primarily black and white photographic log of his journeys to South-East Asia. It opened to rave reviews. "It took me going to Asia to realize the creative crutch which color had become for me. I had to simplify, and make art again."

The next project he embarked on was a sonic one, and it was to take the better part of two years to produce. His debut album. "My stage name, 'Obi Das', came to me in a dream." The album, fully 17 tracks in length, comes in at just under 70 minutes of perfect strangeness. "I didn't want it to sound like anything I'd ever heard before, more than droning soundscapes. I wanted it to be dream-like, but at the same time, very concrete, very real. At the time I was very much into esoteric meditation, conscious exit projections, and all things astral, and was fascinated by the fact that "remote viewing" required the use of "pink noise". So I tried to remove my self from the equation as much as possible."

His sonic efforts have resulted in his being approached by a few independent film-makers who want to use the tracks in their film score and on their sound tracks. While more than a few local musicians have sought him out to produce their demo albums.

After leaving the sonic arena in the spring of 2006, with the sale of his house, and most of his audio equipment, he founded Mesh Media, Inc.. As a tightly niched stock photography business, combining his love of nature with his digital design skills. The first product launch was a collection of 50 digitized real wood surfaces. Each being a specimen of a rare and distinctive wood. Although it was an almost complete failure from a cash flow perspective, if it hadn't been for this venture he would not have been able to create the art for which he is now known.

He currently lives alone in Saratoga Springs, where he has his design and art studio. He creates, thinks, and gets around just fine in a cargo van which he's outfitted for his life on the road.