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ABOUT ME AND MY WORK |
I WAS BORN AND GREW UP IN
LOUISVILLE, KY. ON NOVEMBER 19TH, 1953
@9:21pm THURSDAY NIGHT
A C-SECTION BABY...IRONIC SINCE
MY DAD DIED ON "THE IDES OF MARCH"
I knew that I was an artist by my 3rd Birthday, if not a bit before.
And I've been fortunate to make my living via my creativity most of my adult life...
that is at least after my Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Air Force in 1975.
Lived in Wichita, KS
from Spring 74 through Summer 1981 when I moved to NYC
But while in Wichita,I learned to use an
Air Brush doing custom work for Shirt Shacks Unlimited
Opened Goldeselph* Studios-Freelance Advertising Agency-specializing in
Logo design and Illustration for Ad Campaigns serving local small businesses,
Radio Stations KFH[CBS Affiliate], KAKZ[ABC Affiliate],
TV Stations KAKE[ABC Affiliate] and KSN[NBC Affiliate]as their Courtroom Artist .
Design and Layout of Corporate and Store Preperation Manuals for Pizza Hut Inc.
After moving to NYC in the Summer of 1981:
I opened "The Garden Space Antique Shop and Gallery on Atlantic Ave
featuring European Furniture from the Art Nouveau Period of the late 1880s-1890s
and my own original drawings,paintings and limited edition serigraph prints.
Caricature and Portrait Artist at events and private parties
Illustrator for the Mayorial and Gubenatorial Campaigns of Ed Koch
Started "Major Chutzpah's Chutzpah-grams for ALL Occasions"
Freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer for Shop Magazine, Sergio Valente,
[and yes!] Al goldstein's [no relation] infamous Screw tabloid-best NY client I had!.
A trip to San Francisco in February of 84 [after spending the winter months traveling]
ended with me moving there for the next 7 years.
MAJOR CHUTZPAH PRODUCTIONS -a party planning and catering business evolved from My* "Chutzpah-gram" business
Meanwhile, I continued to do Portraits and Caricatures at events and parties, obtained my Official San Francisco Street Artists License
claiming spots near the Embarcadaro and Union Sq. Park where I sold my original Drawings, Paintings, and limited Edition Prints
as well as on the street Portraits and Caricatures of anyone wandering "The City".
I designed and illustrated the logo for "THE BAY AREA COUNCIL FOR SOVIET JEWS" and did the initial layout of their monthly newsletter.
An irregular contributor to assorted publications including "The Bay Area Times" and "The San Francisco Chronicle".
also strexthed my voice as "Pict-Sweet Frozen Foods spokesperson from 89-91. It was during my time in San Francisco
that you may have caught my October 89 appearance on Jeopardy the week of the big SF quake [more 'bout that coming...]
and my July 92 appearance on "Dick Clark's Challengers"[I didn't win ANYTHING there].
Then came the October 17th, 1989' Quake and the next few years were spent re-grouping after losing almost everything.....
That's when I moved to Los Angeles
In LA I sold very little art and got very few graphic art jobs,
but I was an extra in Clint Eastwood's "In the Line of Fire"
a juror for an Episode of LA LAW.
I did a Japanese Game Show [I have no idea what the title was]
And was cast as a Cave-Man for a Cup-o-Noodles Commercial and then there was the shoot from Hell that was a an Opal Sportster commercial.
In March of 93, after waiting in a mile long audition line for the Beverly Hillbillies movie
I got discovered and cast as part of a Hillbilly Band in the Rod Stewart Video"SHOTGUN WEDDING"
[ look closely for Me* playing washboard in the in the background ]
But in spite of all that,LA wasn't my cup of tea... And not knowing what was at the time
-in April 93- I moved to some property [about 54 acres of hill and hollow, woods and meadows and a barn
I'd hoped to convert to my house] I owned in Harmony WV that I'd been using as a getaway vacation spot ...
I had dreams of becoming an Organic farmer and raising culinary and medicinal herbs,ginseng, morels & shitake mushrooms
and gaining fame as the "Horseradish King" of the Eastern US.
But as a city kid at heart- despite my love of nature,
and given that cold weather was a few months away and I wasn't going to spend winter in my barn-I moved to Charleston,the state Capitol.
Here I became an irregular contributor of illustrations to "Grafitti"-the local version of "The Village Voice"
Learned silver-smithing from my long-time friend Anita Gallagher @ Zephyrus
while sticking to my roots went back to my roots doing Logo Design, Graphics, and promotional T-shirts for local businesses.
Volunteered from 94-98 to do tourbook covers and interior illustrations for our local NCJW chapter's fundraiser- The Gourmet Day of History
Mother's Day 96' saw a huge change in my life when I took on the care of my then soon to be 89 Year Old Mom after "rescuing" her from a Chicago Area Nursing Home. I had to shift my endeavors to become more home based and selective of the projects I took on given my greater responsibility.
Got my first computer in 97' and soon found my way to the web, started designing web sites after learning basic Computer Graphics and Animation.
I opened My .com site in September 2000 after a few trial sites in "Geocities" and began working again by "Commision Only" on just a few select projects each year.
That allowed me to keep my clients satisfied and the quality of my work high-because caring for Mom was like being an hour on call 25/8
After my mom passed in 2004[about an hour after Yom Kippur ended] I did a coup[le of years as a VISTA working with a small non-profit here in town, helped prepare and deliver for Meals on Wheels, Played substitute Sunday School teacher @ my Shul....B'nai Jacob here in Charleston [did their website for 10 years] while doing the occasional mural,portrait and album cover,developed several lines of greeting cards, custom jewelry in silver and hand-painted costume jewelry in ceramic polymer
Over the years,I've built a small following for my handpainted yarmulkes and custom prayer-shawls through associations with the local synagogues and their congregants as well as those encountered in my trsavels and wanderings..
For now...who knows? I Have some writing projects, webtoon animation, elections coming up-gotta get my caricature/editorial cartoons chops honed! And theirs always the urge to "DO Land" [as a dear departed frined used to call it]I have my eye on a warehouse in town that I'd like to develop a intoLive/Work Lofts for Artists with Gallery/Performance/Restaraunt space on the lower floors...meanwhile, I'm here w/ my 8yo cat klezmer seeking an a-MUSE-ing mate.
Nu... Where do I go from here??