How did I
get to this place in my life? Why did I become an artist when
veterinarians make a lot more money? Well, as my good friend Guy
Golemon explains it “talent doesn’t care who it jumps on!” My
life has been, and continues to be, influenced and inspired by
water. I’ve always embraced and kept in touch with my
surroundings. Growing up along the banks of Mobile Bay and
spending a good portion of my childhood in Bayou La Batre and
Coden, it’s easy to understand my water influences.
As a child I loved looking at magazines with all the great
illustrations. Artists were telling the stories with their
paintings. I remember telling my parents when I was 12, this is
what I’m going to do. I’m going to make up stories in my
paintings. It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school that I
actually got to take art classes. I was in the band and didn’t
have time for art as well. During the winter of my junior year I
was in a bad car wreck that ended my music career so our high
school art teacher Bobby Carr found room for me in one of his
art classes. I guess you could say, “I got into art by
accident.”
After high school off I went to Sarasota, Florida, to attend
Ringling School of Art. What a magical time that was. Well-known
professional artists who all had achieved a degree of notoriety
in their careers instructed us. I was at last in my element and
made every minute count. Time passed much too quickly but after
Ringling I was off to conquer the world with a heightened sense
of creativity, pen, pencil, and brush.
I landed a job with a large furniture store chain in West Palm
Beach and earned the title “Illustrator.” We were responsible
for the advertising of seven stores from Vero Beach to Boca
Raton. Now I know drawing furniture doesn’t sound sexy but it
taught me the discipline of drawing with a brush and allowed me
the creativity to express myself through wash drawings—a
discipline I use in a lot of my work today. After a few years in
South Florida I was off to discover new venues and to challenge
myself as an Illustrator all the while continuing to produce my
“personal paintings.”
There were times when I was working on something creative and my
friends couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t go places with them.
They just couldn’t understand how these paintings had to come
out of me. I’m not sure I understand, but I embrace it. Anyway,
years slide by and I’ve worked here and there and freelanced and
have been commissioned by many folks, but I still get the
greatest pleasure from the “personal paintings.”
I have to say I’ve been very fortunate in my art career. I guess
you could even say lucky. I set goals when I was younger and
have worked hard to achieve them with my art. My work has
appeared in magazines such as Saturday Evening Post, People,
Golf Digest, Bass Master, Southern Outdoors, Buck Master, and
Saltwater Fisherman. I was commissioned by the Montgomery Zoo to
create a painting that was made into limited edition prints,
signed/numbered, and sold to raise money to build a natural
habitat for the Golden Eagles. The National Fisheries Society
commissioned a painting for their annual conference in New York.
It now hangs in their national headquarters. In 1990 I won the
Alabama Migratory Waterfowl Stamp competition. I guess by now
you can see a pattern developing. Yes I do enjoy painting
wildlife and I try to include wildlife in other aspects of my
art as well. I also enjoy drawing and painting people. A few
years back I was asked to do a pencil drawing for the signature
page of Colin Powell’s book My American Journey. When I finished
the drawing I decided it would be more valuable if signed by
him. I would hang on to it for a while, and then sell it. Cha
Ching! So I sent it to him for his signature and he liked it so
much he decided to keep it. Well, who’s going to tell Colin
Powell he can’t have it? Not me! He did send me a nice check so
we’re square.
In my real life I’ve done hundreds of illustrations and book
covers as the Senior Illustrator and Art Director for Air
University Press. I’ve been lucky enough to make my living as an
artist. Now retired from Federal service, I enjoy the freedom
that allows me time to create every day in our Dog House Studio. I love everything about being creative because it
lets you get away with a lot. “Oh, it’s ok, he’s one of those
creative people.” A few years back I was invited to an art class where I met a very talented and creative artist, Deborah
Gibson. She was teaching, but I couldn’t tell you what. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Well, September
2004, just two days after hurricane Ivan, we were married on the
beach in Panama City Beach, Florida. How lucky can one man be?
Life is good.
SG