Born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, Nelson studied to be an architect earning a degree from Arizona State University. Nelson credits his life-long love of both art and math with his dual-career path of architecture and fine art. His mother, a painter herself, was his earliest influence. As a teenager in the “psychedelic ‘60s”, the only art posters his mother allowed Nelson to hang in his bedroom where those he painted himself. Later, as an architecture student he had time for very few electives. The first one he chose was a watercolor course with a much-admired professor of architecture who Nelson says painted like “magic.” Discouraged by not painting as well as his teacher, he effectively gave up and stayed focused on architecture. Years later, however, the burning desire to paint returned and he resumed watercolor classes, this time with a higher degree of dedication and more realistic goals. It was during this phase of training when Nelson developed his signature style which he credits most to the principle of “gestalt.”