100 people I need to thank
But none of them are direct influences. I mean. Some of them are. A lot of them are tangential. This is a long list! 100 is a lot of stuff. It could be soooooo much longer though.
This idea was inspired by the book “Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey” by AJ Jacobs, which I have not yet read, but I dig the idea. AJ sets out to thank every single person involved in his morning coffee. From the Barista to the Owner of the shop, to the person who grew the beans. This has been a stream-of-consciousness exercise for me, and every couple days I’ll remember a few people I need to thank and add them to the list. It’s set to coincide with my 100th newsletter.
And by “set to coincide” it’s not set to do anything at all. I’ve just got my 100th newsletter coming up soon (I’m writing this on Aug 17 2025) and finishing this post is just another arbitrary goal of mine.
NOTE: THIS LIST IS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER. More or less. It’s kinda stream of consciousness. So don’t be upset if you’re not higher up. And don’t be terribly upset if you’re not even on here. I definitely want to say thank you to you too. Thank you.
Jarrett Shamlian - for being my best friend and painting weird acrylic robots at one point in his life and then going on to be an actual engineer and building robots. Also for being part of Los Marcos, but that’s only because it was meant to be. Also for bing my “phone a friend” for most woodworking things. At one point he & I were going to have a podcast called “Bro Jobs” where I’d call him from the woodshop and he’d walk me through stuff, but we never got that off the ground. FWIW, my working title was “Handy Friends” but Bro Jobs was even better/worse.
Scott Burhman - for showing me how to think differently in the first place. You and Jarrett are tied for Best Man, even though technically you were Best Man at my wedding.
Jamey Wishner - for being my 2nd most frequently consulted person on woodworking stuff. These woodworking things have resulted in my own furniture, and also a lot of display elements for my art booth.
Jon Greacen - for telling me decades ago that my focus is too unfocused and and I have to focus. So I focused, and then I found a zillion things within that focus to focus on. Like a infinite fractal ouroborus of focus.
Vince Mazza - for being a consistent freelance design client that keeps me funded. Also, the stuff that he does with edesign is quite pehenomenal and I’m glad I have him in my corner
Rachel Ritchie - for not taking a gig with Vince Mazza, and recommending me. Also thanks for employing me at Jaclo for a little bit after we both got laid off from Revolution Digital.
Melanie Curtis - for being my partner and encouraging & supporting me in all of the ways that my ridiculous Hinge prompt promised I would do. The Hinge prompt: I’m looking for: “someone who would fully support my stupid ideas”
Eric McGowan - the owner of Pallet, for chit chatting with me a year ago and while we never got around to designing any beer labels (yet), we established a rapport, and as soon as I pitched the idea of an art event at Pallet, he barely had to think about it before he said yeah.
Ryan Bhandari - for mistaking me for someone cool and inviting me to his buddy Zane’s private chat
Danny Noval - for interviewing me for my last shitty job but not letting me undersell myself.
Vanessa Jupe - for checking in with me annually (plus or minus) after we left DIRECTV and kinda being a once-a-year coach. Also, she interviewed me for a podcast she’s launching that’s all about losing your minde and going out on your own, so keep an eye out for that.
Michelle Stanek, my sister - for also going into a preposterous career and absolutely destryoing and owning that world and shifitng the entire narrative. She did it before I did. And I’m absolutely not poised to have as much influence as she has had. OR AM I?!?!?! It’s my time down here and that all goes away if we ride up Troy’s bucket. (This is a poorly used movie reference)
Magie McGowan - no relation to Eric, but a tattoo artist who I swapped an illustration of her shop for a tattoo of Los Marcos. Every single conversation I have with Magie goes too long, but that’s only because it’s a great conversation
Chombo (rest in peace, rest in power, rest in polo) for reading my mind that one time when he said “you know what we should do?” and I said “throw a tournament?” and he said “yeah” and Los Marco Mayhem was concepted. Riffing with Chombo created the greatest things.
Trackstar. OMG I’m going on a weird tangent already and I’m only at 15. Chombo and I left flyers in Trackstar about the appearance of Los Marcos, but it was absolute gibberish. Someone (Adam Staudt) figured out that you need to cut out the words and rearrange them. Like a goddamn Highlights exercise. This was 100% Chombo’s idea & execution. Adam called us out on it being something we’d come up with but we fully denied any involvement. Trackstar was the shop we clandestinely left those flyers in, and that was the singular event that built hype for Los Marcos. Without Trackstar’s entrepreneurial attempt to open up a fixie only shop in the hippest of New York City aughts times, Los Marcos would have had no roots.
Brad Baker - proprietor of Trackstar, Boneshakers, and several other enterprises. You’re the kind of dude who I look at in hindsight and say “that dude did it” even though I know full goddamn well it was a struggle the whole time.
Dave Currence - who did the same thing with Neighburrito and went on from there. Neighburrito had my ugly 20-something mug all over their wallpaper, stuffing my face with burritos.
The guy who’s been working at the bodega across from the Pit who recognized me at Chombo’s memorial over the summer even though I haven’t seen that dude in like 15 years. THAT might have been the deepest and most meaningful connection I made at Chombo’s memorial. Not because he was so important to me, but because he was a staple of the community and still is. I have no idea what it takes to run a bodega. But he does.
Vic DeLuca - this dude has been mayor of Maplewood for 40 years more or less and for better or worse, he’s here to stay. I’ve gotten to know him though my work with the Springfield Ave Partnership, and I guess he likes me, because he referrered me to Jane Folger - the head librarian - to run a class or two.
Jane Folger - see above. Thanks for letting me teach some chaotic kids some colorful technique.
The Maplewood Library - because apparently someone’s grandkid took my class there and that kid’s grandma signed herself and her four friends up for a paint & sip with me.
Christina Mendoza. Literally she should be #1. She recommended I take time lapses of my pet portraits and post them to tiktok, She makes macarons. I thought this was a stupid idea. but I did it. She was right.
Liz Herring - for letting me do some classes at the Baird.
Jesse & The Player Agency - for letting me do may launch party at their spot
Vanessa Pollock - for sponsoring that and generally being a supporter of the arts.
Nancy Cook - for being a consistent example of how to entrepreneur.
Matt Chappina - for being a neighbor who has entrepreneuered for his entire lief and inadvertently shown me that this shit can work
Catherine Crowe - for commissioning me ultiple times and also introducing me to Matt Chappina
Matt Flaxxenhaar - just a cool dude who’s following what’s best for him in a career that didn’t work for me. Why does he make it onto the list? I honestly don’t know. I started this months ago and have been chipping away at it ever since, and something made me think of him then.
Sara Kinney - for reminding me that you should have a couple fully charged camera batteries. This one single thank you to Sara Kinney is wildly insufficient. I’ve learned a lot from her.
The Spicy Boys. Whether or not they’re real, they have been a support system for me. Legend has it they have too much fun. And Party too hard. And Fuck Ice.
Evan Kilgore - for being the spicy boi that actually makes the first part of the previous shout out make sense. He’s more emotionally mature than all of us put together, and he’s brought a lot of that to our community of idiot Dads. It’s unique and unfortunately uncommon, and we’re all better for it.
New York City Bike Messenger Community - for being the first of two siren calls that pulled me away from what I was supposed to be doing. What does this mean? It means that twice in my life, I followed my heart. One was starting this art career. The other was working as an NYC bike messenger in the early aughts.
Squid - for saying “ok then do it” when I said “hey Squid, I’m thinking about throwing my own alleycat”. We were on our way to the Rico Suave race in DC (I won first out of town and chipped my tooth at that race) and I had been mulling the idea of doing some wacky version of my own alleycat for some time, but didn’t know if I needed anyone’s permission. If I needed anyone’s permission, it was Squid’s. Turns out I didn’t really need his permission at all. I just needed to do it.
Whoever organized the “Rico Suave” race in DC in 2006 or so, where I had that conversation with Squid on the Chinatown bus on the way down.
The Dentist who keeps on offering to fix the chipped tooth I got when I whacked myself in the face with my Kryptonite chain while wining First Out of Town at the Rico Suave Race in DC. Thanks, but I like that chip.
Nic Guillen - for reviving figure drawing in Maplewood and letting me help him build up a whole community around it.
Thea Kluge - for also helping to revive figure drawing and carrying it forward in the future. Figure drawing has been a HUGE part of my art & community development and I’m grateful that Nic & Thea brought me into the fold.
The Studio Tour SOMA - for being THE flagship art event in this community for over 20 years. I got to know a lot of people because of the Studio Tour.
Baker Street Flea - for accepting me into the Baker Street Flea year over year. I feel super hip to be accepted. Those organizers are almost as excellent as the organizers of Soma Affordable Arts. (One of which is me, of course, so this is very vain - and on brand.)
Sybil Archibald - for running a facebook group or two and being a TIREless advocate for the arts & artists around here. Also for creating some truly incredible work. You should check out her stuff. She’s great.
Jen Malone - for being another Studio Tour Alum and a big part of the community. We’ve worked together a bunch here & there and I’ve done the best I can to help her make the Studio Tour successful
Wendy Bellerman - kinda the same as Jen & Sybil. They’re all part of the crew that has been stalwart in the local arts scene for decades here.
The Cannaboss Lady Jill Cohen- for involving me early on in my venture to document everything in downtown maplewood. Her shop is one of the largest pieces I’ve ever done, still. She helped me raise my profile and get noticed by more people.
Kimaya from Kimaya Kama - also for looping me into her projects early on. Small business owners for the win! Congrats on your 10th anniversary of your shop this weekend!
Leslie Goldman - for having a “come visit my studio” button in her email once in 2022. I clicked it. I visited her studio. We hung out. This was one of the moments that started changing my brain into a weird world of being an artist and doing things that are sometimes (or usually) out of the ordainary.
Jesus Nunez - for putting my stuff in the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2023. This may have been my first show ever.
Carl Keubler, for going to that show at the paper Mill Playhouse in 2023 and calling me up two years later to do a couple illustrations of his favorite spots in Ocean City.
Silver & Signe from True Salvage - I don’t know why, but I consider my drawing of their place a step from doodles to illustrations. It might be because I really captured Silver and David (Signe’s Dad) really well. Also, both of them asked me to do illustrations for their wedding. I am eternally flattered for this. It was fun pretending that I wasn’t secretly emailing both of them behind their backs, sharing portrait progress.
Revolution Digital - for being the ad agency I was working at when I started painitng portraits of people’s dogs off our Slack channel
Katie Culliina - for being the first person to commission several portraits
Some lady in Florida - for being the first person to be a stranger to order something from me. I wish I could remember who that was. (I probably can fire back up my etsy page for that, but I also might not be able to do that. Etsy is weird.)
Chris Dickson - for suggesting that I be a candidate for the Springfield Avenue Partnership. This is probably because I hosted a Cranksgiving with him & Rent Party and he saw some kind of potential in me as a person who would like to be involved with things.
Nicole Wallace - for accepting me into the Springfield Avenue Partnership. Even though I have since left that board, she remains a very strong ally. Also, we have many random bike connections from her time urban planning in NYC with TransALT
Madeline Shaw - for encouraging me to join bigwig and also for commissioning a portrait of the South Orange pool from me
Dana Siomkos & the rest of the BigWig crew - for letting me into BigWig even though it really seemed like a girls-only thing. I’ve never felt more awkward than being the first guy in the group on that first day (and showing up late because I was also teaching a watercolor class), but it was also awesome to get an awkward round of applause for it.
Ryan Bhandari - for getting me into the Spicy Bois, which has been a support group and a group of idiots. Both are necessary
Geoff Sheerar - who I met through BigWig, and who helped guide me through a lot of quick growth early this year. His company, Native Theory Digital, might be a good fit for you, too. One tip I got from him is sending out a bunch of google reviews, just to boost people up and to raise my own profile. Clearly I enjoy writing, so it’s hardly any skin off my back to slap together a review for some local businesses from time to time. (Feel motivated? Leave me a review too. Thank you!)
Rebecca Silverstein - for being the first person to ask me for a house portrait, and now I do a lot of house portraits. Rebecca has also volunteered a TON of her time to help the local arts community. She’s also my ex-wife’s boyfriend’s cousin. Which is coincidental, but not really. I’m pretty sure that’s the first way we were connected, and that’s pretty awesome.
Whoever was the stranger who was the first stranger to commission a piece from me. I wish I could remember who that was. But when a COMPLETE stranger reached out - I knew I might be able to make it happen.
Adam Reid - for being a bit of a life coach to me in exchange for some art classes.
Jay Gerard - for being the first person to take one-on one drawing sessions with me.
Amber Heintzberger - for taking my class multiple times, which convinced me that maybe I was good at this, and now is sorta my assitant, helping me out with all sorts of stuff.
Cevil Joyce - for knowing that Nic Guillen was starting a figure drawing session, and put me in touch when I posted about it on facebook.
The Elks -for accepting me as a member, draining all of my blood and replacing it with Elk blood, giving me my antlers (they’re invisible to you unless you’re also an Elk) and introducing me to Cevil Joyce. Fun fact, our local Elks lodge is considerably cooler than you’d expect an Elks lodge to be. JOIN US.
NJHipsturbia. I had been bugging them to set up a pop up portrait session some day and they said “what about doing dogs?” This was something I hadn’t tried at that point and I wasn’t sure if it was going to work. So I tested it out at the Rutgers Street block party and it worked. NJHipsturbia set something up with me a few months later and it was a hit. It also dramatically and instantly expanded my reach, and now pup up portraits are a very regular part of my workflow.
Michelle Bardey - for inviting me to paint people at the Rutgers Street block party. Also for commissioning me to do a portrait of her family. Also for coming to a class at Oh Canary and a paint & sip at Pallet so far. Michelle, you’re actually the best.
Lacey at Oh Canary - for letting me run a class or two there. I’m kinda chaotic with the way I pitch myself and I literally walked in one day and asked if I could teach a class. I’m pretty sure they said no. But eventually they said yes.
Lyman Dally - one of the first people I met in the art world locally, and has been a consistent figure through many journeys. We also have our artwork on the cover and inside map of a book to be published in 2025
NYC Urban Sketchers - for introducing me to the fact that I’ve got a tribe out there. I don’t hook up with these people very often, but they get together and draw stuff. It’s …. it’s my people.
Paul H Easton - he doesn’t know me at all, but i refer to his work all the time
Gavin DeDraw - same thing. He’s the kind of current, local art person who’s work and drive I admire a ton.
Keith Shore - a guy I definitely met once who is a friend of a friend, but again I don’t think this guy knows me. He’s another person my age ish who has successfully made a career out of art
Stefan Karfakis - for one time telling me to come back to him when I had a dozen of those sketchbooks filled up. So I did. Miss you, brother.
Nancy Bossert - an art teacher of mine when I was between my first couple years of college. Nancy said “hey….you should look into art school”. So I did. And here we are. Nancy also taught Stefan.
The Pasdas - who taught me a bunch of art lessons when i was a little little kid.
The people at the Home Depot paint station - for helping me figure out what I needed for my mural materials, and blowing my mind with the whole “sample size” thing - I barely even needed all the paint in those sample size jars, and that was not very much paint.
Jenna Gavula - for hosting a couple mini-mastermind series back in the mid 2010’s. It was great having that time to express a couple wins & struggles, and to connect with a couple old friends
Jothan Cashero - for telling me that Jenna was doing those things. Also for being a secure standby for my weirdest of ideas. I gravitate to the people who do the strangest things, and you were one of those dudes. In the best way possible.
Jake Kahana - fellow bigwig, for hosting a couple pro-bono cavedays for us.
EJ McLeavey Fisher - for doing the same thing as Jake & Jenna. These sprints/caves/masterminds are really great tools for all of us to get some stuff done.
Mika from A Paper Hat. For telling me that I should reach out to Royal Talens and see if I could be an ambassador for them. I wrote a whole blog post about this. Well…I wrote a whole blog post about Mika and a magic sketchbook, but this is another magic thing she did.
Jeff from Royal Talens, who still hasn’t accepted me as an ambassador, but always answers my emails and sends me a lot of samples anyway. Like…this hasn’t worked out yet…but it kinda has. And also it’s a goal I’m working towards. 2026 baby.
Art Spiegelman - not because he’s a legendary illustrator - but because he gave me a copy of Maus once when I was a bike messenger in 2003 and this is my most prized possession. MOSTLY because the story that goes along with it is wonderful. It deserves it’s own post.
The comic book store in Easton PA circa 1985-1995. Spent a lot of my money there.
Luke Stiles - a founding member of Los Marcos and of Bike Shorts - who would regularly send me thumbs ups on my newsletters. I like this encouragement, but i DO NOT LIKE THAT YOU HAVEN’T SENT ME ONE OF THESE IN LIKE A YEAR BRO.
Andy Seestedt - who sent me a kudos on my email last week, and while I understand that there was no way he was going to come out to Jersey for the Affordable Art Sale, I very much appreciated his use of footnotes in his email. It’s these kinds of encouragements (both Luke & Andy) that make me feel pretty good about what I’m doing.
Jane Motz Hayes - for firing me from my last job, thus giving me the nudge I needed to start doing what I’m doing right now.
Sadie - my 9 year old daughter, for being awesome and loving and cool and giving me excuses to make up bedtime stories - many of which may end up being children’s books some day. This Sadie writeup doesn’t do her nearly enough justice, but that’s a story for another day.
Mom & Dad - this seems like an obvious one, but I gotta put it on the list. You got me where I am one way or another!
The Affordable Arts Crew - Natalie Crandall, Sumana Ghosh-Witherspoon, and Magie McGowan. This one is too on the nose for this list. It was going to be more abstract. But I’m kinda under the wire here (for this deadline I set for myself - some people may call that “goal setting”). These ladies, however, have been the hands-down BEST team I’ve ever worked with and I’m honestly blessed to have the opportunity to do some of the coolest stuff with them. Can’t wait to see where we go from here.
Adam Gustavson - Again, this list is in no order whatsoever. Adam is a regular at Figure Drawing, and I’ve learned SO much from him. Last week, I turned to him, took a look at his drawing and said “I’m almost as good as you now bro. Watch your back. I’m coming for you.” This is obviously a joke, and I still have a LONG way to go to get to being as good as he is but I’m so glad he’s a person I know. He had me give a talk to one of his classes once too. Which was such an honor. I hope some kids got something from it.
Andrea Hsu - who also had me give some chats to her classes when she was teaching at Kean. This was before I even started doing art 100% of the time. Doing these little chats with her students was very much a part of me building up my confidence & repertoire to be where I am right now.
Mrs Bogdan - a high school teacher who taught Humanities. This was an AP class and it was kinda freeform. One time, for a group project, she let me & Tom Mazur act out a scene from Macbeth. She let us do a lot of self-driven projects and it instilled in me the idea that we can do whatever we want to do. (Note: Mrs. Bogdan may have been the pre-calc teacher. I’m not sure.)
Ms. Lutte - the band director. Marching band was a huge part of my life back in the day. She drove us to be very very very good. And we WERE very very very good. She accepted no slack, and always pushed us to be better. She is another one of the teachers that have had a profound influence on me. Jon Greacen (pretty high up on this list) may disagree with me a bit but that’s ok.
Maplewood Wheelhouse (Aaron & Leigh) - for being really supportive of all the stuff I’ve been doing - especially the Paint & Sips with Pallet
Senor Sangria - (Rick & Maria) - they pushed me to do the Paint & Sip thing in the first place, with Lum’s. It didn’t work out great, but I learned a lot from that fumble. They’re still around, and we’ll still do stuff together.
Jonathan Lumley-Sapanski - Or “Jonathan Lumly Pants” as Sadie (no89) says. One day, I dropped into his shop around the corner from my house and asked if I could paint quick portraits of people as they do their wine tastings. “Sure” he said. It was a dry run for me - just to see if it was a disaster or not. It was not a disaster. And now it’s a huge part of what I do.
Margaret Paz - I swear it’s not intentional that you’re near the end of this list. Margaret is my ex-wife. We get along very very well and are doing a great job coparenting. She’s got a real job that pays real money. And if it weren’t for that and for her ability to support our kid - and her support of me following what I know to be the right thing for me - I wouldn’t be able to do it at all. Thank you.
You. I’m not sure who’s reading all the way to #100, but if you are, leave a comment so I know who you are. You’re a true fan. Thank you. Sincerely. I deliberated a lot on who gets to be #100 (by “a lot” I mean about three whole minutes of not dumb stream of consciousness). It could’ve been any number of 100 other people who are important. It was going to be you no matter what. Hope to see you here for the next 100 newsletters.
