Since it looks like I'll be around here for awhile, I better introduce myself.

Connecticut Yankee by birth and Southerner by long duration, a stint in the Navy and then real life... Art was not my first choice in careers but one day on the hot tarmac of Hartsfield airport (in the Atlanta of long ago) I reached an epiphany of sorts, as I tossed the 500th piece of Samsonite into the waiting belly of Eastern Flight 678, and decided that maybe I'd better look into going to art school after all.

Atlanta College of Art (1968)followed, then the Art Institute of Chicago(1970) and MFA in hand I went looking for a job. I ran a gallery in Chicago for awhile and taught part time at Hull House. Then followed a move to Florida, the birth of my first daughter, then on to Ireland and a year in that interesting educational system. 1972 found me back in NYC with a wife, a baby and $18 dollars in my pocket. Lucked into a job teaching at a small college in NW Ga and with many restless thoughts greener pastures, managed to stay put till retirement as art department chairman. .

All this while I was working to maintain a professional profile and stay sane by producing numberless images in a wide variety of media and attempting to gain fame and fortune by various marketing means including gallery sales (Joy Horwich Chicago...Lowe Gallery Atlanta and LA...Carlton Cobb Gallery Atlanta...Christianson Gallery NYC)

My work is predominantly figurative with lots of nudes and lusty narrative. Eclecticism though is a trademark with me and right in the midst of a hot run of figure work I might decide to do an oil painting of one of my horses ( we have 5 BIG lovely draft horses) or render an airplane or sketch landscape or .... But thats okay I admire diversity. Drawing is my preference, most paintings now are only by commission. I usually work in series and I do some digital things as well. If any art has influenced me more than others I would say the Mexican Muralists and the French academicians with a jolt of Max Beckmann for good measure.

I'm retired with time on my hands and a million ideas to work with. My wife Elle is a fine artist and an excellent photographer but in the realm of Raw Unbridled Creativity no one compares to my nine year old daughter Rachael. I envy her.

www.mottsstudio.homestead.com