November 10, 2008
In this section my hope is to contribute occasional thoughts on sports art, sports in general, art in general, artists that have inspired me, methods and techniques I use to create my work, and anecdotal recounts of career events that I find amusing, interesting, or pivotal to my success. It would be great if I were able to post a blog a week.  But we’ll see.   I’d rather paint than write, and I try to get in about three sessions a week of tennis.  I am also a movie buff, so I indulge that interest once a week with a close friend.  I invite responses, ideas, opposing points of view, and suggestions the viewer may have about making this web site serve you better.

My first entry is about this new web site.  I hope to keep it up for a little longer time to allow as many visitors to read it.  My first attempt at web presence was okay, but I didn’t take care of it very well, and it was incomplete in some areas.  I thought it was a bit tedious to navigate.  It had aged and needed a fresh look.  I never intended to market art through the site.  I meant it to be just a showcase of the work.  This new effort is more complete, that is, every Diamond King, every series of Perez-Steele work, and new Topps work is up for viewing.  The site is still a work in progress, there is still some copy that I have to upload in time, and I hope to keep it fresh with new entries.  Many of the card and art entries will have player information.  The copy for some of the Donruss and Topps card images is what appeared on the backs the year the cards were published.  I thought it would be interesting to see what was being said about the players back then.  It is my intention to provide the copy from the backs of all of the Diamond Kings.  I hope I have made it easier to navigate.  There is now an “Art Shop’’ section that will offer sports and non-sports original art and prints.  And I might put up other things there that you may find interesting. 

The “Art Gallery” is broken down into sub-sections according to medium.  The “Phillies” section chronicles my long relationship with the team.  This section will be periodically refreshed since the amount of work I have done for them is too great to post at one time.  The “Perez-Steele” section is as complete as it will ever be since that enterprise closed its doors in 2001 after the death of my good friend Frank Steele.  The “Topps” section showcases my latest efforts in the trading card industry.  A few additions have to be made as soon as I get my samples from the company.  The only thing missing from the “Donruss Section” is the work I did for “Ice Kings” and “Ice Masters”.  Donruss conceived this sub set as the hockey answer to the “Diamond Kings.  I have a few of the cards, but not the complete 3-year issues that Donruss produced.  I am proud of that work and would eventually like to include them in the section.  If anyone knows where I might be able to get a complete set of these, please let me know. 

If you are viewing this new version of my site for the first time and have any comments, please feel free to email me.