During and after my student years at the Pennsylvania Academy, I worked at various venues as a street portrait artist, initially on Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ in 1973 on a sketch line. I went on to sketch pastel and charcoal portraits from sitting customers at state fairs including seven years at the Danbury Fair in CT, ten years at the New Mexico State Fair, and twelve summer seasons on the Santa Fe Plaza in NM—-around 7,000 “heads” or more including pets and animals from photos brought by customers. Every now and again, I hear from children of customers that these simple images were displayed at the customer’s funeral and that they were handed down to someone who continued to treasure the portrait.

Street art might be at the lowest rank in the fine arts for anyone trained at the Pennsylvania Academy as I was for over three years, but I would not devalue the challenges I faced as a performance artist: Most of my sketches were pleasing to the customers; a rare few that were not I either did them over or did not charge for them. Every now and then, I nailed it with a Rembrandt or Hals! My last year as a street portrait artist was 1986. My cult intervention career got in the way.

Around 1977. At portrait stand on the Santa Fe Plaza.