I Had my First One Person Gallery Show, Old Town Art Gallery, in 2006. It was an Exhibit of 10 Originals and 11 Giclees. I hung Two Large Library Exhibits at Chicago's Edgebrook and John Merio branches. I hit the Art Fair Circuit Hard, taking my Signed Limited Edition (295) Canvas Giclees (Now "Galleries"), On The Road. I had done One Show a Summer for Years, but Nothing like this. I was with most of Amy Amdur's Shows and a few others, totaling 14. Everything was 24 x 30 and 30 x 40, stretched on 1 1/2" stretcher bars, with painted edges, ready to hang. I was buying the prints and doing the stretching, pounding the frames together in the alley. I drove the photographer (condo pres) living below me crazy. I stretched hundreds of giclees, went thru a half a dozed electric staple guns, worked on card tables with "towel feet" to dampen the gun and hammer. Greg was Great, giving me a hard time (it was pretty much constant for months, he would say years), but he always told me to do what I had to do. I couldn't have done it without the support of Greg and his family. I hooked up with Macy's Look Gallery on State Street. Ben Laskov, and Art Consultant with Look, was putting together a Show of Five Local Artist's with a Chicago Theme. He was in a collectors home and saw "Memories" hanging and remembered me from an Art Fair. I continued with Look into 2007. In early October, A Gallery Owner and fellow Breakfast Grouper, included me in a Four Person Show titled "City Life" at Stolen Buick Studio. I wound down Chicago Artists Month with A Two Day Open Studio, as an Artist with Fulton Arts Walk'06.
January 2007 I participated in a group show "Art House '07". An evening event, held in a higher end home for sale. A Collaboration of Art and Architecture, a Party, given by Phillip Bernal Designs (he attended my Open Studio). It was at the party that I got the idea to "Paint Every Baseball Stadium in the Country!". In one summer. To come up with the money I sold my loft. Ten days after the idea, my place was For Sale. 40 days later I was On My Way to Somewhere. I had lots of art to pack up. My only real plan had been to do the Art Fair's again, it was just about time to put money down on spots. A Road Trip Across America sounded like way more fun! I went to a used book store and bought 35 Books on Baseball. I joined Netflix and had a constant stream of Baseball Movies playing while I was packing. I bought a Giant Map of the Country and plotted all of the Stadiums. Gathered info. Three weeks into it, it hit me. I'm really not THAT big of a Baseball fan. I like it sure, but enough already. "Spiritual Road Trip!" That Was My Dream. I told my friends and family. I THINK they were relieved. A Spiritual Adventure, 2 or 3 months traveling up and down the California Coast, photographing, meditating, writing. After Packing Up the Studio and Storing it in Vegas, I didn't feel much like Hitting the Road. I felt like Buying a House! On August 1st I had a Home. I set about fixing it up. It's in a thirty year old faux tudor community built by Libarachie in '79. I over look the house he built for his mother. It's pretty classic, in a gingerbread sort of way. It's my cave. My first cave painting was "Chicago", my Largest Original at 48" x 60" (no photograph of it yet). Soon after arriving in Vegas I was in a Group Show at Contemporary Arts Collective, LV.
In 2008 I stuck close to home, doing four pieces inspired from Vegas. I put together what I think might be, my Last Full on Original Commission. I did several Commissions a year, starting in 2002 for "Dr. Lyle". Each piece is customized with the Collectors favorite buildings, restaurants, street signs.... pretty much anything they want. The streets are filled with the family, the kids in their lemonade stand, the family dog, the kids when they are older, the parents..... anybody they want. I had work hanging for 4 months with the Canyon Ranch Artwalk located in The Venetian. I got a Screaming Deal (Art Expo Demo) on a Canon, ipf8100 Large Format Printer. I tried getting my two new Vegas Pieces into casino gift shops, as signed and numbered prints on paper, sold in a plastic tube. I Struck Gold, One Buyer Responded! He said to contact him in 6 months. You Bet I Am! As I was shuffling the house around, making room for the giant printer, I ran across an old notebook. On the front cover was a canvas crop of an old giclee that must have been messed up, so I cropped it. I pulled the crop out of the sleeve and put it on my coffee table with Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper books. They sat there for about three weeks. The next thing I knew it was all about the CROPS.
Thanks for reading. I'm in the process of growing Crops and building the Website. My First Show/Sale of Crops is Jan. 2nd, at First Fridays in Las Vegas. I'm Renting a Wall at Blue Sky Yoga Studio and Selling my First Batch of Crop Artist's Proofs (1 and 2#'s out of 10). In 2009 I plan to tend to the Crops and do Four New Pieces : Somewhere in California, State Fair (day & night) and NASCAR.
When I know something, I live it.