| I have a nice formal, no-nonsense bio written by a friend of mine who happens to have good writing skills (which I have misplaced and really need to find), but for this I think that I'd prefer to get more informal and personal. Now, where to start...? | ||
| People always ask me, "Why do they call you 'Doc'?" I'd like that story to be more interesting than it really is. Back in the early '70s there was a revival of the old Doc Savage novels by Kenneth Robeson. There are more than 200 of them, and they filled the shelves in the paperback book department at the local TG&Y, which is where everyone shopped before Wal-Mart came along. Then in 1975, they made a movie, "Doc Savage: Man of Bronze", with Ron Ely in the starring role. At that time, I was involved in the DeMolay's and the First Baptist Church youth group, and the social leaders in each group started calling me "Doc", and so everyone else did, too. I liked it, so it stuck. |  |
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| When I was thirteen, I decided I wanted to be an architect. I would sit in front of the TV sketching out house plans on graph paper, and then I'd go in my room and build a cardboard model. I'd get ideas from the sets on the TV shows or from visiting open houses and houses under construction in my home town of Edmond, Oklahoma. Looking back, I can tell you that most of the designs I came up with were crap, but as a teen, I thought they were inovative and utopian. | ||
| During my junior and senior years in high school I took as many drafting courses as I was allowed to prepare myself for architecture school at Oklahoma State University. But when I finally got to OSU, I discovered that architecture is not drafting. It's more a combination of art and math. The art I could do, but the math was a problem. My grades were terrible. And since the buildings have to stand up, and not just look pretty, they kicked me out of the engineering school. I spent the next year and a half seeking a way to reinstate myself. | ||
 Visitors to my booth at Arts Festival Oklahoma 2002 |
Somewhere along the way, I discovered how much I enjoyed using technical pens. My dorm roommate, Jeff, who is now a talented and accomplished architect in Edmond, loaned me his pen set for my studio class. I got hooked. To me there is something almost magical about being able to create objects and textures and moods using only lines and dots. It just fascinates me. I later got my own pen set, and it wasn't too long before I had produced my first major work. I entered my first art show, the Edmond Art Association Fall Festival, in October of 1988, and have been showing ever since. Recently I've started taking my art show out of state. I always go to Stillwater, Edmond, and to the Arts Festival Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, but now I'm taking it to Denton and Wichita as well. I'd like to go furthur out, but time and money don't always permit it. | |
| A new thing for me is being asked to judge a few regional art shows. Having shown my work to a variety of judges over the last fourteen years, and after organizing several shows for the EAA, I've gained an understanding of the work involved in selecting the best pieces among several good works. I've also had my impartiality tested when I've judged shows where good friends of mine are participants. But I digress... |  Judging the Stillwater Art Guild Spring Show 2002 |
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| I took a couple of years off from school, and then enrolled at Central State University in Edmond, changed my major, and graduated with a degree in Art Education. It's amazing how much your grades improve when you find something you're suited to. But finding a job teaching in the public school system is another thing entirely. While my resumes were floating around the state, I did some substitute teaching, which did not pay the bills, but did manage to kill any ideas I might have had about how much fun it would be to teach in that venue. | ||
| So, I got a job in the framing department at Hobby Lobby (we have to eat, right?), and discovered that it was something I was really good at. It wasn't too long before I was more or less running the department (in an unofficial capacity), and I had a long list of customers who only wanted to deal with me! Now that was a huge boost to my damaged ego. Our department had a really good crew, and, if you'll allow me to brag a bit, we had the most efficient department in the metro area-- mostly because we ignored company policy and did things the way they needed to be done. But our store manager (Col. Potter from M*A*S*H) was promoted out, and was replaced by a new guy (the pointy haired boss from Dilbert) who decided to redo the entire store. Some departments he did very nicely, but when he got to ours he created a fiasco that sent the entire department looking for other jobs in just a period of three months. It took two years for the store to recover. | ||
| Someone near and dear to me
suggested that I start my own studio and frame shop. She
said, "Look, you've been talking about starting your
own frame shop for two years now. Why don't you just do
it?" So I did. I sent out a letter to all my
customers that I could remember off the top of my head,
set up accounts with a couple of suppliers, and within
three days I had my first customer. That was in the
summer of '95, and I'm still here. My Dad is one of those people that believes strongly that you have a better chance of being a success in life working for yourself than for someone else, so he was very exited about my new business. Shortly afterward, my parents hired a contractor and we set about the task of converting my garage into an art studio/frame shop. |
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 A view of the interior of the studio, showing my main workspaces on one of those rare days when it's actually tidy. |
The major construction took place over a period of two months, and the outfitting of the interior I did mostly myself, with the help of my best friend. I keep changing my mind about how I need to arrange my workspace, though, so I don't know if I'll ever actually finish it. Still, it's my favorite place to be in the whole world. | |
| Business waxes and wanes throughout the course of a year, so it has been necessary for me to seek a steady paycheck outside the studio. Currently I work nights in a hotel. But my boss is very encouraging, and I get to work on my drawings while I'm there. But I still have dreams, and someday, on a day when I've had enough sleep, I will make it big. | ||
Gabriel has been assisting me at my art shows since 2002. Shadie, the schnauzer, is a newcomer |
I'm Looking for 2007 to be a transitional year for the studio. In February a dear friend of mine, Gabriel Guerrero, from Mexico by way of Texas, moved in, and he is now running the shop during the day. He's here to make sure that the place is clean, that I make all my appointments, and that I get all my work done. I guess that makes him my new boss. In any case, after letting the business lie dormant for the last three years, I'm excited about this year's possibilities. Back to Home | |
