As long as I'm painting I'm breathing and I will take whatever comes!
I was just thinking about 2007 getting my Sprinter Mega Ceiling Van and all the plans I had. I had built a fabulous 10,000 ft state of the art studio with aspirations of building the most ambitious mixed-use Art Space in the Midwest. I had my first big exhibit in NYC at OK Harris with the legend Ivan Karp. Then, the crash 2010-2012 just barely hanging on, going on to lose my studio after hundreds of thousands of dollars invested from the sale of dozens and dozens of paintings. Momentum all but stopped…Artist League dormant and dreams crushed.
But I was able to hang onto the truck and with the help of one dear friend hang on to my paintings in a space that he paid for one year in advance, to store what was left of my equipment and tools, along with my paintings. It took months and months to regroup, and then with nothing but a few hundred dollars and even a home foreclosure notice in hand, I loaded up this special truck setting out cross country and long and behold I met Meridith Baer the largest staging company in the world and icon of California design. She bought a truck load of paintings and I was back in the game.
Then a complete reset, I had enough to set up a new studio and continue my body of work. I met William Shatner and worked on a concept for a TV show about philanthropy initiatives with big stars, I got new commissions with what were just dream clients on projects that I can’t even talk about…..Donating pieces for charity auctions and raising over 300 thousand dollars.
Through the years many-many people came to rescue because they believed in me and my art. I started doing art fairs and self-promoted cross-country tours, reinventing myself again and again, creating a new strategy to expand the distribution of my work—networking with more and more people and starting to thrive again.
This year is no different. I am passionately pursuing reinventing myself again with a line of Wall Coverings, Rugs, and even Haute Couture in addition to painting new collections month after month, week after week---somehow when it comes to my painting, there’s something that keeps me in the game no matter how bad sales are. Because as an artist, I have gone on that roller coaster ride my whole life, and like everything else you develop tolerances and adapt to whatever life throws at you.Well I still have the truck, I'm still painting and creating every day.
The moral of the story, I never gave up then and will never give up now!
Wishing everyone all good things,
Edward
