I returned to the South because I missed the change of seasons.  The company I worked for in Hollywood opened a shop in Orlando and asked me to join them; instead of film and tv, we concentrated primarily on long term builds for clients such as Disney, SeaWorld and Universal. Other projects included my carving 50-foot wide high-relief billboards engineered to survive 100mph wind loads; being the lead artist and in-house art director for a computer driven animated Christmas display installed every year for five years on Radio City Music Hall’s marquee.  I also had the honor of being lead sculptor and art director for super-realistic sculptures installed at Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. After sculpting and installing a computer-driven piece for the Hard Rock Cafe in Madrid, Spain, Hard Rock International offered me a job; I logged thousands of miles traveling around the world doing 3-D design for new and established Hard Rock Cafes. Connections developed in that company ushered me into freelance art and design; one of my first jobs was designing the façade of ESPN’s flagship entertainment center in Baltimore, Maryland. I climbed higher and higher in this world of retail entertainment and yet still could not push through truly innovative ideas. Hitting this roadblock over and over propelled me to return to my fine art, to see what I really had in me artistically and not to have any regrets about ‘what might have been’.                       

I moved to Black Mountain in 1999 and for the next 25 years, I pursued my fine art: within the first three years I had my first solo show and from there other solo and group shows, public art commissions, private commissions, a nice selection of kudos and lots of rejection letters.  I have had an extraordinary professional life and the most profound singular influence on my art has been living on these 2 acres in Black Mountain. Every day this sweet piece of property offers the opportunity to see alternate worlds: sometimes real, sometimes imagined, always authentic. Now in a position to do exactly as I please, I have every intention of using these resources even further for an unencumbered exploration into Julia’s world.

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April 1st-26th • Annual Artists' Guild Juried Art Show - Reception during ArtWalk, Thursday, Apr 17th

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