This past Thursday, I had the honor of guest lecturing at Ryan Seslow‘s Art Appreciation Class at Iona College. Professor Seslow, Iona College and the students welcomed me with open arms. My objective was to visually introduce my background, work, process and daily routine.

The class was highly receptive, asked some incredible questions and even spent 30 minutes drawing the Guggenheim. After the jump, my presentation slide-by-slide, as well as the resulting class drawings.

Whenever I give a presentation, I like to give a brief introduction to who I am today.

Of course, it’s great to say, “I am an artist” — but I am a huge believer in the journey, and since mine was anything but direct, it helps illuminate the situation.

My last day in advertising was bitter sweet… I left a wonderful agency and an exciting industry. However, the overall feeling was that of pure exultation.

When I have showed Bob Ross to High School students, many of them look at me like I myself am a relic. Fortunately, the gang from Iona knew all about Happy Little Trees.

As I learned through many client presentations, the less words on a slide, the better. When introducing my work, I like to tell the intangibles versus the obvious. For this slide, I shared how and where I painted it — from WhenTech‘s corner office at 7 World Trade Center at night.

As the seasons change, a location artist must get creative with selecting their location. Fortunately, the prolific ad agency SS+K allowed me to set up in their lobby to capture this stunning view of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

Painting the Guggenheim was my first canvas as a professional. Shortly after completion, it was acquired by a collector in Milan.

The TriBeCa Grand was a painting commissioned by BevForce, the beverage industry’s largest career network. BevForce’s President has since become my most prolific supporter.

The Central Park Boathouse painting was commissioned by a terrific young couple; they were married here, and wanted to preserve the moment.

While Eustace made the New Yorker’s website, it never quite found it’s way to the cover. The canvas itself has been added to a prolific collection in South Beach.

This painting was created on-location at Time Out New York‘s West Side HQ. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have received the support I have from Time Out, one of NYC’s most important lifestyle publications.

This 3’x4′ canvas was created on my coffee table while I had a broken leg. I was determined to create a painting in the time it took me to watch the first three seasons of Dexter… this is not my standard time line for a painting, but it made sense here.

The South Street Seaport was a commission, again, to commemorate a wedding location. The collectors of this work have been instrumental in my career, providing office access to paint the Woolworth Building at night, and letting me store my MAD painting while it was a work in process.

My America was my visual time capsule of the six cross country road trips I have taken to date. Lot’s of strange things happen in the middle of America.

After being profiled in the Wall Street Journal Japan, this painting which lead the article was swiftly acquired by a collector in Japan. Stand by for more exciting news about this work…

The Museum of Art and Design was an incredible journey, mostly in learning a great deal about the street performers in Columbus Circle. Specific areas are highly territorial, and if you don’t go about securing a spot the right way, you will be chewed up and spit out. Added bonus: while painting this picture, I was contacted for a radio interview on Valerie’s New York.

My love for The Guggenheim is large, and thus, I decided to paint it again in my new collage painting style. After this picture, I have decided I will paint the Guggenheim from the same spot every year to have a consistent evolutionary point of reference.

Side-by-side, the Two Guggenheim’s show exactly one year of my artistic growth.

Process driven, my entire blog strives to share each step along the way. Here is a condensed version of the process.

Continued as the march toward completion rapidly formulates.

Any entrepreneur will understand the necessity of wearing many hats. The future CEO’s of Fortune 500 Companies will have likely hand-written thank you cards, landed big deals, updated a module on their website and taken out the trash in the same day.

No matter who you are, what you do and where you work — you are a brand. So, think of the brands you admire and treat yours the same way. Dress your brand to impress, from the most obvious point to the most finite details.

A big thank you to Iona College for having me. Professor Ryan Seslow runs an inspired, creative and energetic classroom. The students were excellent, the facilities impressive, and I came away with an incredibly positive Iona College experience. Additionally, I want to thank Chairperson Catherine Mapp for the opportunity to share my work and background.

At the end of the presentation, Professor Seslow suggested we put up a slide and allow the class to spend a half hour drawing. The chosen slide was a Tale of Two Guggenheim’s — for a group of students who said they can’t draw, I think you will agree, the results are inspired.

Some beautiful work on the windows, as well as an interesting skewed perspective.

Beautiful Basquiat-esque line work.

Precise, draftsman-like.

Sensitive line work.

Nice use of line weight variation.

Creating weight with line.

An inviting perspective toward the museum entrance.

Another inspired use of line variation to create depth.