My friend Michael sent me an email through my page on Facebook. I thought i would share it with all of you. It's really great to hear from people who are so touched by my 3d pop art. It reminds me just why i am a pop artist. It also shows what an incredibly small world we live in. I have been showing my work in Germany for more than 15 years…it figures that Michael would have to go all the way there to see my art for the first time. Amazing.
I also happen to agree with him about “Steppin' Out on Broadway.” It was a favorite silkscreen art edition of mine…particularly the way the sky came out in silkscreen…it was magical. I'm working on another piece now, called “Singin' and Dancin' on the Great White Way” that i hope will end up with the same sky effect…should be ready with it towards the end of next year.
Thanks again Michael! Your email is inspiring!
–Charles
Dear Charles,
I have a story about your work that I simply must share with you.
A couple of years ago I was on a business trip in Frankfurt Germany. After my meetings were finished I went with one of my colleagues for a few beers at a couple of pubs and then walked around the city a bit. We stumbled (to some degree I’m serious) into a really cool little art gallery. They had a number of your pieces and I was immediately drawn to them. I had never seen anything like them and stood there for quite a while looking at them and wishing them I could own them. At the same time, I made the assumption that they were way out of my price range and didn’t even ask the prices as I fully expected to be disappointed that they would not be affordable. Also, I didn’t bother to write down the artist’s name; after a while we left the gallery.
A month or so later I began to deeply regret not buying one specific piece that I saw. I began to regret it to the point where it could have been 15, 20 or even $25,000 and I would have bought it if I could only figure out who made it and where I could get it. I described your work to a number of my friends and offered $1,000 to any of them who could simply tell me the name of the artist. We all went to great lengths, including me calling many of the largest Galleries in Frankfurt -no luck.
Nine months into this process was I heading to lunch with a friend and I was walking by a gallery on Central Park South. I very coincidentally looked in the window of the gallery as I walking by and, absolutely astonished, I saw your work. I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned!
I spent a long time in the gallery (bought a PR edition of The Apple is Manhattan on the spot) and upon arriving home I started reviewing all of your works and found the one –the one-, it was Steppin’ Out on Broadway. I can’t tell you how happy I was to finally solve this mystery! The gallery didn’t have this one as it was from 1993-1994 but I was able to find a collector in Scarsdale who had it. I went with a friend to go pick it up and was mesmerized when I saw it there hanging on his wall; needless to say, I bought it immediately. He also had a PRDX edition of A Dream for Peace beautifully framed on the wall and I bought that as well.
Since that time, I bought another copy of Steppin’ Out on Broadway which was damaged during shipping so I had your shop embellish and reframe it, and now I have both. Subsequently to me going to the art collector’s house to pick up the first one, my friend who drove with me there, Andrew Miles, has become a serious collector of your work and owns many pieces and has given many as gifts. He has developed quite an appreciation for Steppin’ Out on Broadway so I have agreed to loan him one for a while. I have a feeling that he’ll be trying to find one to buy as soon as I ask for it back.
Coincidentally, my wife is a huge Broadway fan and our neighbor happens to be Julie Reiber, the stand in for Elphaba, the lead role in the show Wicked. When we first met Julie in our common hallway it was fun to bring her in to our apartment to show her your work. She’s really a celebrity (www.juliereiber.com) and it was fun to be able to prove to her that we were serious Broadway fans. She was blow away by your work!
That’s my story, Charles. There is a tremendous amount of mystique around Steppin’ Out on Broadway for me. I love it a lot and have had crazy thoughts such as trying to buy every one in existence (no, I’m not actually that crazy). It’s such a wonderful piece to me and the color balance and content are just perfect. Perhaps one of these days I’ll find an original DX edition.
Thanks for producing such great work, Charles. I expect to be a collector for many years and look forward to continuing to grow my collection and sharing it with my family.
Warmest regards,
Michael
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