Luxury Item

It’s graduation day at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010, and the world feels both full of promise and on the brink of collapse. The Deepwater Horizon disaster is unfolding, the job market is grim, and the art world-where the author is determined to make his mark- seems to finally be within reach. Early success leads to international gallery representation, quickly followed by disillusionment with academic politics, sending the author in search of greater meaning and purpose beyond gallery walls. He embarks on a six-year cross-country odyssey with Sarah, a travel nurse who becomes his life partner and his compass. From New York’s art scene to the quiet resilience of Colorado Springs- where they narrowly avoid a mass shooting-their journey collides with eccentric visionaries, legendary painters, and grassroots creatives reshaping the visual arts’ greater potential for real change. Throughout his writing, the author revisits his Arkansas childhood, learning disabilities, and his fascination with the ocean. This thread ultimately pulls him back toward environmental activism.By 2023, after being betrayed by his gallery and navigating a pandemic, fate leads the couple to Marlon Brando’s Tahitian eco-paradise and, eventually, to the coral reefs of Key Largo, where art, activism, and purpose converge in a fight against environmental collapse-and against apathy itself.Luxury Item is a memoir of art, love, and resilience-an unflinching portrait of the messy pursuit of meaning in a fractured world, illustrating how personal stories can inspire social activism and change, inviting readers to consider how creativity can become a tool for survival and resistance.