The winter of 2007-08 in Maine was approaching rapidly and I had been unexpectedly out of work since September.  We calculated our budget, pondered our predicament, changed the way we were looking at this to “our opportunity”, and decided to take a trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  As author Leo Buscaglia would recommend, we decided to celebrate life in the face of hardship......or in our case, potential hardship.

Before we left to Mexico I decided to have a Holiday “Barn” Sale, hoping to make a few extra bucks for our journey.  I decided to organize my late father's, Barry Nelles' prints and ink drawings with plans on selling some of them in the sale.  With the help of my wife and daughter we laid out all of his prints on our dining room table, the floor, and anywhere else there was room.  Most of his life's art work was in front of us, organized by categories such as birds, sports, circus, etc.  Finally, after many hours (or was it days) of organization one of us said, “hey, these would look great on shirts!”  ... and off we went to Mexico for the holidays.

Barry Nelles (1933 - 2003) worked for the Lone Ranger Comic Book in his early twenties followed by a long career as a middle school art teacher in East Hampton, Connecticut. The comic influence is present in his art as are his interests. He remained a prolific artist throughout his life and his linoleum block prints represent a rare collection of artwork in this medium by one artist. Barry's body of work is also an uncommon blend of illustrative, comic, and fine art styles. However, his art is easily recognizable because of the playful content and/or qualities of his work. Even his renditions of buildings, such as in Ludwig's Castle (Neuschwanstien), show his fanciful or whimsical artistic manner. Themes of content include the circus, birds, antique automobiles, musicians, westerns, architecture/buildings, creatures, and people. Notable works include The Circus, a 3.5’ square print that has almost everything imaginable going on all at once under the bigtop. His Middle Haddam print, measuring approximately 35 feet long, is possibly the longest linoleum block print ever made by one artist and depicts a historic section of the Connecticut River Valley.