Creating Visual Poems

Sharing my paints and canvas with the ladies who bring my vision into focus is how my art comes to life. I mix and lift the paint, they add finesse to my mixing and to the feel of the paint leaving my brush. The interplay between these ladies that light up my studio and myself transforms my art from simple picture making to creating visual poems. My still-lifes and landscapes benefit from my inspiring ladies who leave me filled with sharpened desires to create and challenge myself. 

Hearing the voice of those who are visually inspiring me enriches who I am as an artist, filling my artistic soul. Listening to dreams and stories from the ladies adds color to my paintings. Stories of waiting tables to pay for text books, caring for autistic kids to take an extra law course, weeding gardens with bitting ants, walking dogs in winter weather followed by hours of studying courses on business ethics. Some just need money for skates for a young hockey player. All have an interest in art. All want to help in any way they can in getting me the work of art I want. I get a  charge out of being able to help them and hearing how they move closer to their dream. Many times they get needed rest working for me. Some get studies done when I stop asking them questions. The more I learn about my models, the more I can put into a painting.       

My Dad Was Smart

My dad was a very smart man. Though, at the time, I had my doubts. He wasn't too pleased when I told him I wanted to be an artist. We didn't talk about what might be a better profession for me, or why was it that I wanted to be an artist. My high school guidance councilor washed his hands of me. Several teachers told me without a college education I wouldn't amount to much. 

Told you my dad was smart. Well, while I was trying to get help from my teachers and guidance councilor, my dad set about learning how one becomes an artist. He talked with art teachers from other schools and was directed to an artist named Ruth Van Sickle Ford, a successful artist and director of the Chicago Academy of Art. rs. Ford and I talked for a couple hours before she gave me a letter of introduction to Frank Young, owner of the American Academy of Art in Chicago. She said the American Academy was more in line with what type of artist I wanted to be. I studied drawing and painting there for four years. 

My education in art took a side-step when I got a job in a gallery. Working in the gallery as an errand boy I learned what this gallery looked for in the way of artists, I saw artists turned away and was told why. Wall space is valuable and on Michigan Avenue very pricey. The gallery could not afford to hang a two hundred dollar painting on it's wall and survive. It's collectors want established artist, artist with a philosophy and a long term goal. Over the years I've had to write out my philosophy and long-term goals a few time for galleries. I learned doing good work isn't always enough. I continue to learn about both the creative and the business side. 

My dad didn't send me to a person with a PhD in Medieval Studies or a person with a Business Degree who paints every other weekend for information on being an artist. My dad was smart. He sent me to an artist that was successful doing what she loved doing. I can't afford a new car every year or steak for dinner every night but I have been able to give money to help out the people in Houston and Puerto Rico by doing what I love doing.