Paint what? Yes, I probably did. Yes, I once painted my carpet, and bedspread. It was so cool. Mom didn’t think so. But luckily she was an artist too so she softened after the initial shock.   

And yes, I painted that really bright fish house out there on Silent Lake, floating in the snow and ice of Minnesota. My brother’s demolition derby car, my Mom’s store walls, a neighbor's pick-up truck, and even a guerilla middle-of-the-night paint job in my freshman dorm floor lounge. All were successful, I think. Used to be kind of an impulsive artist. Or maybe I can re-term that as intuitive.  

In high school I had a phenomenal art teacher who mentored me into going to small street shows in the lake towns of Minnesota at age 15. I began to have sales and to see more art than I previously had in my life. So in the University years, studying for a BFA in Art, I was ready for a switch in direction, and started blowing glass. This was not as successful as the freshman guerilla art. I badly burned both hands when grabbing the falling blow stick. Not a good look, but a good lesson.

Voted Best Watercolorist my junior and senior year of University, I began to show work (paintings, not glass) in businesses and enter in shows and won several awards. Throughout my first career as an actor in Minneapolis and then Los Angeles I kept painting to remain sane. It was a perfect balance of introvertism, painting, and extrovertism, working as an actor. Both were giving me insights and wonderful experiences. Work led me to several countries where I saw a great diversity of art and always snuck off to visit galleries and small art sales.

What I found, through travels and travails, is that art moved me to the core, especially art that really was not about the subject matter. And so this has become my journey, to speak to the spirit of things, to give people a glimpse inside the essential nature of the subject. I am not always successful but I always enjoy the inner travels.

With great fortune, I have had collectors commission many pieces, had the opportunities to paint murals on many giant walls at colleges, schools, homes and businesses . And in one home, one of my paintings hangs next to an original Picasso (please play the soundtrack of One Moment in Time while you read this.) If opportunities run low, look for me out in the streets at night searching diligently for large blank spaces to work on because I believe the world needs to be filled with art. It makes everything better. Even burned hands.

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Eliry Arts, Redlands, CA 92373.

My art business has been designated as a "Trusted Art Seller" with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.