My First 40 Years

East Side Dairy, Night    1980    oil on canvas    16x20"    collection of Jack Kalchthaler    

After graduation, having worked at an amusement park for the summer season, I had to continue paying my bills as autumn approached. I had no art job or prospects. So I lowered my head and returned home, where my parents graciously took me in and allowed me to stay as I thought out my next step. There were no art jobs in Pittsburgh or Cleveland for a young student with a BFA who could paint well… the jobs were all advertising jobs for department stores, requiring skills I had not acquired as I chased Claude Monet’s shadows. While in Greenville, I continued to do what I could do, which was paint and do occasional free lance work for people, and I applied my skills to painting the convenience store across the street from my house, which I remembered from as far back as I could. It is no longer a store, and my family no longer owns that lovely old house. But here again I was chasing Monet, painting the same haystack, er, storefront, at different times of day, er, night.