When I was growing up, I watched my older brother John, draw and paint and make things. He was an artist. I didn't have a clue that I could do it too.
I was in my 20s before I made my first brush stroke. I was paying a visit to an artist friend when he was working in his studio. He set up a canvas for me and gave me some paints and said to paint something.
It was a moment I will always remember.
That was in October of 1968.
1969 changed a lot of lives...Some because of Viet Nam, other because of Woodstock...Mine changed because I started becoming known as an artist, of sorts.
I was going into bars with a pocket full of Magic Markers and for the price of a beer, I would paint your sneakers to look like the American Flag. It was a very political fashion statement, then...and I was doing OK.
I started working on canvas around 1970. Then in 1979 something changed my direction.
I went to the post office to buy the stamp that was issued for Martin Luther King. He was a hero of mine. The stamp showed a portrait of the man but as far as stamps went, it was a very uninteresting piece of postage.
I thought I could do better.
I took the paintings I had completed at that stage of my career and added titles and denominations to them, as well as painted perforations.
I have been painting my own brand of postage stamps ever since.
I use the stamp motif for my more auto-biographical paintings. Sometimes I just do something whimsical. But all of the paintings have a surreal or mysterious undertone to them.
I have been painting now for almost 40 years and have only painted about 100 canvases that I feel are worth signing... It feels like I should have done more, but painting has always been the 2nd seat on the bus... Raising a family and having a business took most of my time for the first 20 years.
Then my wife said that she thought that she married an artist and I wasn't being one any longer...It was a cold shot and it worked!
About 1988 I made a stronger effort towards my art. I changed my direction from being business oriented to art oriented. I began painting canvases - not in a stamp format. I was developing narrative pictures with strange tales to them. I was enjoying the freedom from the stamp motif. And my business didn't seem to suffer from the change of direction.
More later
I was in my 20s before I made my first brush stroke. I was paying a visit to an artist friend when he was working in his studio. He set up a canvas for me and gave me some paints and said to paint something.
It was a moment I will always remember.
That was in October of 1968.
1969 changed a lot of lives...Some because of Viet Nam, other because of Woodstock...Mine changed because I started becoming known as an artist, of sorts.
I was going into bars with a pocket full of Magic Markers and for the price of a beer, I would paint your sneakers to look like the American Flag. It was a very political fashion statement, then...and I was doing OK.
I started working on canvas around 1970. Then in 1979 something changed my direction.
I went to the post office to buy the stamp that was issued for Martin Luther King. He was a hero of mine. The stamp showed a portrait of the man but as far as stamps went, it was a very uninteresting piece of postage.
I thought I could do better.
I took the paintings I had completed at that stage of my career and added titles and denominations to them, as well as painted perforations.
I have been painting my own brand of postage stamps ever since.
I use the stamp motif for my more auto-biographical paintings. Sometimes I just do something whimsical. But all of the paintings have a surreal or mysterious undertone to them.
I have been painting now for almost 40 years and have only painted about 100 canvases that I feel are worth signing... It feels like I should have done more, but painting has always been the 2nd seat on the bus... Raising a family and having a business took most of my time for the first 20 years.
Then my wife said that she thought that she married an artist and I wasn't being one any longer...It was a cold shot and it worked!
About 1988 I made a stronger effort towards my art. I changed my direction from being business oriented to art oriented. I began painting canvases - not in a stamp format. I was developing narrative pictures with strange tales to them. I was enjoying the freedom from the stamp motif. And my business didn't seem to suffer from the change of direction.
More later