Art has always been a part of Roger’s life. In his home town of Clifton, Illinois, a small farming community south of Kankakee, Roger developed his skills by creating sets and posters for the drama club. He sold his first painting to his high school history teacher. One day Roger’s father came home and told him that a neighbor needed his name painted on a truck, and thus began a lifelong association with calligraphy and signage.
Roger’s Featured Artist Exhibit of larger-than-life 3-dimensional matchbooks is a nostalgic journey of vintage and contemporary imagery originally used for advertising products and services. What began several years ago as the concept for a 12″ x 12″ exhibit at the AFAF Gallery has become an extensive body of work of over 300 dramatic “matchbooks.” Roger describes them as “little images that make big statements.”
Roger has exhibited throughout the area including at the Anderson Center in Kenosha, CLC Gallery in Grayslake, Norris Gallery in St. Charles, the Campbell House Gallery in Geneva, Charlene’s Gallery 10 in Gills Rock, Door County, WI as well as at small exhibits in Waukegan, Gurnee, Lake Villa, Fox Lake and of course here in Antioch where Roger is one of the founding members of the Antioch Fine Arts Foundation.