Flashback Friday

I had my first one man show at Te-Ma Gallery on Mill Hill Road in Woodstock, NY in late 1988. Te-Ma was an artful furniture and accessory shop shepherded by a lovely, statuesque German woman named Dorothy Telson.  I walked in one day and said "Hey, my art would look great in here!" She was up for it so I brought down some work from my studio in Bearsville where I was working for Sally Avery summers 1987 through 1990. Dorothy loved my work, it was a go.  The show turned out to be fruitful for us both. At the time I painted geometric color fields along with large drawings like the one in the article, which I sold. Far from what I would end up doing and certainly far from where I am now....  More of a photographer than anything else.

My opening was Thanksgiving weekend... Saturday November 26, 1988. It was attended by the entire Avery family, friends from in and around Woodstock, my family and my closest friends from SVA. After the opening we had a casual dinner at The Woodstock Pub afterwards my friends took me down to Dover, NJ to see Pinetop Perkins at The Show Place -  a long drive from Woodstock, NY.  The celebration went on to daybreak the next day.

Dorothy extended my show through the winter on 1989 and I sold a few pieces. This article was written by  local personality/art critic Dakota Lane. She even interviewed me over the phone at the art gallery I worked at in Fairlawn, NJ.  It seems like ancient times now yet my memories of that night are crystal clear - full of the bright palette of my paintings, the cold mountain air, the love of my friends n' family.