Opening Night at Concrete Ocean

In spite of there being several art openings in the St. Louis this past Friday evening, my mixed media retrospective at Concrete Ocean Art Gallery with Jeff Sass was a success. At last count, I had sold seven of the twenty-one paintings- not too shabby. An intimate but enthusiastic crowd that seemed to be there for the music as much as the art warmly received my band, The Good Medicine Revival (I could hear you kids out there and you sounded great!). And to think that many of these paintings have been hidden away in boxes for years… all good things in time, I guess.



Thanks to my show partner Jeff Sass for all his hard work and beautiful art- a sweetheart. My humble thanks to all that came out to see Jeff & I- some of you all the way from my hometown of Cuba, Mo (damn!). I can’t thank my patrons enough- you allow me to keep doing this every time you take one home. Thanks to the Riverfront Times, Bill Barrett at Webster University, Stephen and Peter at Art Patrol, Stefene Russell at St. Louis Magazine, the kids at my hometown newspaper The Cuba Free Press, and everyone else who put the buzz out on the street. Thanks and love to my lovely parents Patrick and Ramona for always being there. Thanks to my band mates for tirelessly entertaining the crowd the entire evening, and putting on one hell of a show! And of course, a very special thanks to gallery owner Bryan Pease for believing in Jeff and I. I felt like it was a good night!

One of the funniest moments of the evening was having Tony Renner show up in the outfit he wore in his cut cardboard portrait I crafted last year- Hilarious! Tony is a generously humorous, deeply intelligent, and beautiful individual. I have yet to discover who bought the portrait, and Tony said he (laughs) wasn’t certain how he felt about that! Tony has been one of the most inspiring St. Louis artists I have met since my arrival in 1997. Almost completely self-taught, Tony just jumped right into art only a few short years ago, and works as hard as any local artist in realizing his vision. A suggestion he offered over drinks at Blueberry Hill on Delmar was the catalyst for my recent works on corrugated cardboard, which have been very fun and successful. As in many cities, the St. Louis art scene can be very cliquey- not all are accepted and included… but Tony was absolutely, immediately genuine...


If you missed opening night, just call Bryan or myself for a viewing appointment:

shawart.com: (314)814-0040
Concrete Ocean: (314)497-0199
2257 S. Jefferson
St. Louis, MO