About

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Meet The Artist behind Art-Faux Designs

artist Arthur Morehead, a native of Illinois, moved to Naples in 1987.

“When I first landed in Naples I fell in love with the area right away and knew I had found what I’d been looking for in a home.”

I’m thankful to be a part of a great business community here in Southwest Florida and I’ve decided to give something back. I’m planning to do a public mural and am wanting to capture some historical elements within our community and to put them to canvas. The final work is planned to be auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting a local charity that supports the arts.

The announcement is initially planned for the spring of 2010  2011 and will take place at Art-Faux Designs Studio.

This event is still in the early stages and I am hoping to get some community involvement to share in the development and creation of the mural. I am always open to suggestions for ideas on what should be included in the work so feel free to comment on this blog or you can email me or call with your suggestions. Again this event is to benefit and inspire people within the arts locally and I’ve earmarked it to be a year long process to better organize my efforts. Remember I am only an artist and not an event planner so any help or suggestions is encouraged.
My Dream….
My dream of having an open studio for ALL artists young and old to be able to come and participate in seminars classes,events and numerous other projects has been a rough journey in this economy, but I am still pushing forward because I feel this is something that is meant to be.
The opening was to be on November 1st 2009, just before the seasonal residents where to arrive here and in which I had 4 classes scheduled to support the costs of the studio and the proposed philanthropy project and also had planned events such as Saturday afternoon art classes for kids but due to a 4 month delay of the build out process, it had basically brought my dreams of teaching to its knees. Because of the delays I had to cancel 3 of those classes, and have also missed this seasons contract opportunities, which was going to help support the expense of taking a few people who can not afford to take the classes. Learning about these talents is expensive and I have personally seen many talented individuals end up struggling through life because of a simple thing such as money standing in the way of a completely different and rewarding life because of the inability to pay for a class, a tube of paint and a paint brush,…….but it happens……..it has happened to me…….
In my Dream I want to see everyone to at least have a chance to discover their own talents, and hopefully bring some of those hopes and dreams to a reality…….and being able to at least get that one shot that could possibly change lives. I am a firm believer that the arts can help people discover a new life and can actually become therapy for others………….you see, I made a promise to myself many years ago that I would help as many people as possible to discover their hidden talents if they wanted to take a chance on themselves because I was given that rare opportunity myself as a child and if it were not for my art I really believe that I would have been just another statistic.

So many others have basically given up on life and are only able to survive on a day to day basis without any hope of a future believe they have nothing to look forward to because they have “falling through the cracks” of society. I have personally seen and lived it myself and it was my passion for the arts that pulled me out of that rut that I had fallen into at one point in my life and gave me hope which has put me to where I am today.

I aim to keep this promise no matter what the cost and even though this economy has done everything it can possibly do to destroy my dream I refuse to give up because I know that my purpose in life is to help others realize their dreams. With today’s economy I find myself asking for help to keep this dream alive with any donations, of art supplies, fold up chairs, tables, easels, building materials, or anything else that would help in teaching the arts. Art-Faux Designs was not set up as a charitable organization for the simple reason that I did not feel it was necessary being that we have always been self supporting and could not have seen the devastation that the current economic conditions would bring to all of us, but it is what it is, and now I must do what ever is necessary to keep the dream moving forward.

My Personal Story (The Inside Scoop)

Having always been working with my hands since a young lad, I was immediately drawn to art even before my first day in school. Back then art class was a normal part of school in Illinois and I couldn’t get enough of it. I enrolled in just about every class that had anything to do with being creative, from turning wood with lathes to drafting and blue printing cabinet designs in high school.

My first real experience with a paint brush was when I was maybe 6 years old I guess when I wanted to “help my father.”

You see my father and his father before him worked very long hours in the local steel mill and back then you had to work very hard for very little. We were always looking for little ways to help out around the house.

So one day the neighbor boys and myself, me being the decision maker, decided to help my father by painting the rental house that we lived in. I had discovered this bucket of old red lead paint (I’m sure a lot of you out there of my age can relate to those days) and we began painting the entire back of the house as high as our little arms could reach, which really wasn’t very high or level but it was still more than enough to attract the attention of our landlord.

I won’t go into details about the ramifications of making adult decisions and the few trips behind the proverbial wood shed, but let’s just say I couldn’t sit down for a week and something else besides the house was red too…

Needless to say that didn’t stop me from continuing my “Paint Rampage” as my father put it because the neighbor’s fence was my next project and even Spike our dog got involved and became part of my plans when I tried to make him look like Petey the dog from the old reruns of “The Little Rascals.”

Time passed but I’m still a curious child when it comes to art. My education consists of many years of experience (30 years plus) in the painting business and I have been painting my whole life. When the faux finishing craze hit the industry I was introduced to Donna Phelps owner of The Sarasota School of Decorative Arts and decided to further my knowledge and hone my skills. From there I took extensive training from Faux Effects International in Vero Beach, Florida to learn the product line and now this quest for knowledge has evolved into studying with professionals from all over the country and some of Europes’ most renowned artists.

Armed with these special skills I started a new company called Art-Faux Designs & Decorative Painting Inc. Since I have been painting all my life this has had a profound effect on me. I am not just an artist, or just a craftsman but a fusion of all aspects of decorative finishing with a real love and a passion for what I do. As the older I get I have found myself teaching others and have actually became passionate of yet another art form and have decided to do this more often. Being that I have not had the opportunity when I was young to take my education to a higher level because I had to go to work and raise a family.
I encourage architects and designers to contact me when they are still in the design stage all the way until we determine the final result. I love to be involved, and in fact I love challenge too! Stretching the limits of creativity makes me feel alive and excited so I made my company motto, “The pickier you are the better we are.”

I can get pretty “geeky” and anal about painting too, so sometimes if I start to go too technical just remind me to tone it down a little more and let the pictures do the talking. I created this blog to share my love of faux and decorative finishing with everyone and I hope you enjoy it. I love to meet and work with creative people so don’t be shy, leave me a comment and say “HI!”