These paintings were the product of years; an effort to convince publishers to take a chance on me. They were presented in person and through mailed prints, as the body you see here, and in the company of less worthy work, over the course of five years before success. During this time I furthered my education by assisting Ken Laager, a prominent western illustrator who just happened to be local. This was the guy who had introduced me, saucer-eyed, to Dunn, Pyle, Wyeth, Schoonover, et al while I was still in art school.