About the artist.....
There's my cluttered little garage painting studio. And that's Jake keeping an eye on things. Often one of our three dogs will hang out with me if I don't play the music too loud. My wife Lee, also an artist, usually has a dog or two with her in her studio too.
I've been a full-time working artist since I graduated from Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, FL way back in 1981. For most of that time I was a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. By the year 2000 I was getting restless producing art for other people. Thats when I first decided to apply to some local artshows. At the time I was doing realistic watercolors, old buildings with peeling paint, etc. Well, it didn't take long for me to see there were already many talented watercolor painters out there that my work was similar to, and that got me thinking.
I needed to take some time exploring and find my own unique style that could stand out among other artists work. Because no matter how much time & effort I put into it, if my art is not that much different from the artists work down the road, forget about it!
So I began to explore with acrylics. Experimenting with color, texture, and compositions, looking for something that made me say, "oh yeah!". And after about a month or so of "oh no's" I began to see what I was looking for.... It was bold, colorful, and best of all, it didn't look like anything else I've seen. More importantly, It felt like the 'real me'.
From then on I just painted as much as possible and entered more art shows. My new work was getting the kind of attention and appreciation I hoped for and sales followed. Even better, a year later I met Lee at an artshow in Ft. Lauderdale! She joined me on the artshow circuit and in July 2004 we were married. I coaxed her out of Miami and we now live in the Melbourne Florida beachside community of Indialantic.
Now here it is 2008. I've cut back on my schedule of outdoor art festivals to focus more on creating new work and to establish gallery representation to show it. So if you are a gallery owner or manager and like my work, please call me - let's talk about your representing my artwork in your area.
