I'm a muralist at heart but with the economy crashing around us it's been hard to sustain a living as a muralist. What once was my passion had all but dissappeared; until recently, reading an article in Juxtapoz magazine I found myself not really pursuing murals as a career anymore or even as an outlet. After reading the article which included interviews with some of the world's best known street painters, I was so inspired that I stopped half way through the article and re-painted a mural in my house which I have been wanting to replace for sometime now. Within hours I had transformed a piece of the Last Supper into surrealism. Wow. All of a sudden I'm inspired to do several community projects. What can I do with these ideas in my art community that these artists are doing all over the world? An inspiring mural at the recycle community that not only encourages people to recycle but makes them want to go to the recycling center to see it? A mural that makes you hungry outside of a local eatery which also drives tourism to its downtown or other local areas? I have so many ideas. It's amazing how you can be inspired when you didn't realize you needed inspiration. All from picking up an art rag at a friend's suggestion. Thanks to the magazines that don't just cover another boring watercolor tecnique but actually empower us with the information and inspiration we need to dream, create and enrich the lives of people around us through art...the international language... Art.

 ...I got nothing.

 Recently I was included in the "Artists Among Us" book released in November of 2011 by the Hub City Writers guild. It is a compilation of 100 of Spartanburgs most creative people. Needless to say I was honored to be included among some of the outstanding artists that have set the standard for the integrity of art in our region as well as a few of us who are setting the scene for the next generation. The book was compiled by Edward Emory of Carolina Gallery and photographed by Steven Stinson. It was an amazing effort. It tracked the history of art in Spartanburg back to its roots and highlighted the current artists with a bio a and a representational piece of art. Below is the piece I submitted.

 The project took almost three years to complete. And now the Upstairs Art Space in Tryon is having an exhibit of the 100 artists featured in the book. The exhibit goes up Friday, March 16th through April 28th with an opening reception on Saturday, March 17th from 5-8 pm. All 100 artists have agreed to enter the show and it promises to be a unique event so plan on being there to get your book signed and meet the artists.

Above is the photo Steven captured me in. He used a "Lens baby" lens to achieve this effect. He also used the same hand painted back drop for all of the portraits. I am proud to have been included in a project of this magnitude and hope its a success for every one including you. Please attend this event and celebrate the multitude of talent we have in our area. You can purchase the "Artists Among Us" book at the Hub City Bookshop in downtown Spartanburg.  (photograph by Steven Stinson)

Well, here we are a year and four months later. The Upstate Book Project is finally upon us. Sixteen months of working lunches, endless hours of playing devil's advocate, explaining the rules, re-explaining the rules, marketing, planning, printing, building the website, communicating with the artists, explaining the project to numerous people (including the artists), emailing art outlets, printing flyers, leaving flyers, formatting, re-formatting, uploading, downloading, photographing, editing pictures and words, ordering, tracking, researching, designing, drawing, judging, sorting, filing, opening the bank account, processing payments, checking the PO box everyday (and begging them not to close my PO box because all of the submissions exceeded the size limit), printing and designing the business cards, distributing the business cards, and most of all pleading with the team not to kill me for including them. 

It has been one wonderful, exhausting project that turned out to be a fantastic voyage. We thought we were building a box. It was more like building the Hoover Dam. Whew! What a ride it has been. I would like to thank all the people and organizations that contributed to and supported such a complex project.

The exhibit goes up Monday, March 19th at The Showroom at Hub Bub in downtown Spartanburg and will run through Saturday, March 24th. Please join us for the reception Friday, March 23rd from 7-9pm. Please join us if you can. It WILL be worth your time. You can also order the book online now at Theupstatebookproject.com.

OK, so I've been missing in action for a while. To be honest I took on more than I could process. As usual. I started the "Omo" series of sculpture last year and got sidetracked by the igniting of The Upstate Book Project which I did not realize would be so time-consuming. Also, the same thing you have delt with for the last 3 months. Aunt Jeanie needing Tylenol instead of Motrin, cousin John is a vegetarian activist, "we should've had turkey instead of ham" ...yadda, yadda, yadda, bills, etc. Oh yeah, I got a dog. Not to mention trying to release the Shadowland book the same week I have the opening of the Alice in Shadowland show at Gallery East in April. And of course, I started doing a body of abstract paintings during all this as well. I know this sounds narcissistic but believe me, it's anything but that. It's about making something happen when your industry seems dead. A quote from Frederic Lord Leighton comes to mind, "As for waiting for inspiration I have no faith in it.  I am guided by the nature of the task I have in hand.  I take the thing as it comes...Waiting for the mood, being unable to control oneself, is the stamp of amateurism.  My principle is that one ought always to control oneself." I'm still working on the "one ought to control oneself" part of it.

Last week I was digging through my studio trying to organize the hundreds of paintings that seem to just keep growing. I pulled out a couple that I had started and never finished. At that point I started playing with the idea of painting over them. I stared at the two that I had decided should be something else. Nothing. So I sat one on the easel and stared at it even longer. Nothing still. An hour or so later I sat down at the easel determined to make something happen. I decided to just paint a bunch of color on it and see what happened. All of a sudden, Bam! A burst of energy, creativity and life filled my whole being. It was a creative frenzy. The canvas came to life with a feeling and expressiveness like never before. Several hours passed as I worked nonstop til it was complete. I was in love. I grabbed another canvas and painted over the next piece and the next. When I looked at the clock, I had been painting for 10 hours without hesitation or distraction. The energy was incredible and would not subside. Restless, I went to bed. I dreamed of painting these pictures all night. When I woke, I went straight to the art supply store and bought 5 more canvases. Big canvases. 36"x 48" to be exact. I painted with this extreme energy I had never felt before for five days. I couldn't stop. I continued to nit pick them for a couple more days until I was completely satisfied. When I stopped I felt like I had been in a car wreck. I was exhausted but had an entire new body of work. Abstracts. I hate abstracts. But there they were, all ten of them. I posted one on Facebook and within minutes I had sold one. Wow. How strange? Several days later I returned to do another one and it was like pulling teeth. Gone. As artists, we know it can come or go at any time. I hope it comes back.

As the economy changed and the mural business slowed down I found myself worrying about where the paychecks were going to come from and had a momentary blur of what the future was going to hold. Twelve years straight of jobs with people waiting up to nine months for me to get to them turned into a few jobs a year. Well, obviously the time space continuum had just shifted. I have been doing this long enough to know that just because a well dries up doesn't mean you're going to thirst to death. Within weeks I had a whole new set of challenges. New classes, a lot of antique art restoration, as well as time to concentrate on some other personal projects. Namely, Shadowland as mentioned in my previous post. I have not only had time to get that off the ground but have had time to do The Upstate Book Project, work on the "OMO" sculpture series, my first sculptural work in over seven years, contribute to a worthy cause and learn a new medium. Never confuse closure with finalization. I guess what I'm trying to say is just because you're comfort zone changes doesn't mean its not going to be alright or even better. One of the best things that ever happened to me was getting fired two weeks before Christmas. So when the door closes, turn around and walk through the other one. Now.

 As most of you know I wrote a book called "Shadowland" a few years ago. A project that I let lie in limbo for much too long. With some of you buying the characters and knowing their role in the story over the last few years, it's finally going to happen.  I finished the story a while back after it resting for almost two years. I have finally found someone that I respect to edit the book and I hope to start collaboration sometime in October. I am extremely excited about this project. It will include an exhibit of all of the original Shadowland Character oil paintings which have never been exhibited. I'm working on concept art for the cover as we speak. It will not be an illustrated book so don't get too excited but it will have visuals, character bios as well as portraits of the characters. You'll just have to wait and see. I'm shooting for maybe April, May or June for the launch. So stay tuned for updates on the second coming of Shadowland.

Several weeks ago someone posted a website on my FB page as a joke or maybe a dare. I don't really know which but I clicked on the link and it was The Painted Art Bra Project  So I checked it out. Well hell yeah I'm gonna paint a bra for Breast Cancer Awareness and a fundraiser. So I walk into the house and ask my wife if I could have a bra. Well, she looked slowly up at me with a somewhat worried look and said nothing. I said, "I want to use it to do art". She replied, "Of Course you do". With that response I explained what the project was about and she graciously gave me a canvas. Being an artist gives you opportunities that you would not get in other professions. So I painted the twins from my Shadowland series on the bra connected by the pink awareness ribbon. It was the profile picture for a week on their FB page. Bra, donated. Talent, free. Doing something you love to do for an awesome cause? Priceless.

Last week I received a call from a client wanting me to remove mildew from an old painting and restore the frame. I told her to bring it by and I would look at it. The client brings it in and I assess the damage. I notice that its quite old and finely painted. I tell her that I can make the repairs and would be in touch with her. As I started working on it, I notice that it is signed by R. Street and dated 1836. The fact that it was 175 years old didn't alarm me as I do this type of work often but it did spark my interest enough to Google him. Lo and behold, it was painted by a famous American portrait artist named Robert Street (1796-1865) whose work is in museums and galleries nationwide and very rare to find. Once the mildew was removed, I carefully hand-made the ornate edge of the frame that was missing, glued it, matched 175 year old gold paint, and reset it in the frame. To have the privilege of restoring such a painting as this is an honor.  Who knew that being an artist in Spartanburg, SC would reap such a reward?