I first became aware of photoshopping at an academic conference at Florida State a decade or so ago where a presenter shared the home page of her website, which featured a photoshopped image of a Van Gogh painting in which she had placed herself at a café table.

So I decided I’d learn Photoshop, which has become very handy when I’m illustrating posts for this blog.

On the side, I started creating what I call “fake art.”  One night on vacation somewhere, maybe Saluda, North Carolina, I noticed large canvases in a restaurant that didn’t seem quite right.  I asked the server if they were actually paintings, and she said, no, they were photographs that had “been filtered” to look like paintings.

Ta da, a new hobby was born.  I shipped a couple of my pieces to on-line companies that transferred my kitschy collages to canvases.  Most of my early works were Folly Beach bars that I funked up by pasting images from pulp novel covers into the scenes.

I took one to my favorite hangout, Chico Feo, and traded it for a $50 bar tab.  It now hangs in the bathroom of a suite that they rent out over the bar.  Some patrons approached the owner a couple of months back and asked if they could purchase it, and he put them in touch with me.  They bought five.

My first sale

Then last week at a house concert my wife Caroline and I hosted, a woman wanted to buy another one, and then the day before yesterday, another fellow wanted to buy a completely different one that also hangs at Chico Feo.

The second piece sold

The most recent sale

So here I am selling these jokey collages without even trying to, so it has occurred to me now that I’m on a fixed income, I should try to actually supplement my cash flow by marketing this shit, maybe even print postcards or something.  The last thing I am is a businessman, so I don’t know where to start, but I thought, I’d go ahead and post a few of them here for the hell of it.

Jack of Cups

Chico Feo Bachelor’s Party