I just returned from my first trip to Miami with the Remote Studio. This concept takes the idea of high-end portraits on location to the next level, bringing a complete black and white AND color portrait studio anywhere in the world, via trailer or airplane. A Remote Studio opens up client potential for people who resonate with my large-scale wall portraits but don't have time to travel to San Antonio.
The impetus for this was twofold. First, in 2019, I made a five-year goal to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in five years. Second, when Covid hit and devastated the studio, I realized my vision of creating an international destination studio exploded, and I had to pivot. Since then, the studio has weathered Covid, and we have persevered, but I did two significant projects in this timeframe.
1) I created the Notable People of San Antonio in 2020 project that documented 69 leaders who braved the studio when that was very scary and showed them in a dignified light.
2) I developed the concept of the Remote Studio by copying traveling rock bands by designing 34 custom airline travel cases and adding three 30 x 40 framed sample portraits on easels. This complete traveling studio could allow me to create the range of my work in black and white plus hyper-realistic color and digitally painted color.
I have continued to research artists and am convinced that John Singer Sargent or Yousuf Karsh would use the tools I have if they could. My work is artisanal and all done by hand. Painters now use snapshots to create paintings, and I use my camera to capture the emotion and give me the information to do my artistry on my own time.
My trip to Miami was enlightening. I found Carousel Studios and created a sustainable relationship with them. The studio is a perfect size, in the ideal place in Miami's Design District, and high-end clients will feel at home with every part of the process.
I also got much feedback from people who delighted in my high-end offerings. I have always found that high-end discerning clients instantly "got" the process I embraced, so this was delightful yet not surprising.
I now see trips to Miami as often as monthly, anchored with Dallas and Houston trips on the front and back end of the more extensive travel. Monthly trips are enough for this year.
I hope you will continue to follow my adventures and help connect your high-end friends with me. This concept of dignity and excellence is perfect for this time in history where tradition and nostalgia are taking over where fluff and superficial life were previously prevalent.
Thank you for following me, and I always look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
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