Donald L. "Bud" Cassiday I’d always planned to paint when I retired, but then I couldn’t wait any longer. I knew that this is what I had to do. And, fortunately, I was in a position to take a year or longer and devote myself to this creative urge and see where it leads. I’d worked as an English Instructor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha for three years, a housepainter for two, a social services worker for six, and a union organizer for seventeen years and the timing was right so in February of 2004 I quit my job and am living on savings until the $$$ and credit are gone. I am largely self-taught and exploring the meaning and practice of art on a daily basis. The spirit that has moved me in this direction has strong and consistent. I’ve tried to resist, but have been unsuccessful. On the American scene, I am constantly amazed and influenced by well known artists including Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, Robert Henri, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keefe, Charles Burchfield, Grant Wood, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Willem De Koonig, Arshile Gorky, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Grace Hartigan, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, David Hockney, and many currently working artists not so well known. On the European side, I am influenced by the modern greats: Matisse, Picasso, Macke, Kandinsky, Cezanne, Roualt, Van Gogh, the Fauvists, the Impressionists, the Expressionists, and many others. Out of this melting pot of American and European art comes a rich mix of line and color and shape and form which enriches our lives every day. My work is currently or has been exhibited in several Omaha galleries: aVENue Gallery at 4916 Underwood in Dundee, Adventure in Art at 6001 Maple in Benson, Adam Whitney Gallery in Countryside Village. Most recently, the White Crane Gallery in the Old Market Passageway, At the Loft Gallery at 1105 Harney, and Louisville Art Gallery have exhibited my work. Two pieces are currently exhibited at the UNO: one in the Senior Scholars Room at the Library and one in the Nebraska Foundation Office at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences. My work also is or has been exhibited in several restaurants and business around Omaha including Classic Golf, The Radial Café, Nick’s Grill, Steam’n Koffee, 28 Pearl Street, in Council Bluffs, Bob’s Grill by the Omaha Courthouse, The Foundry in Benson, Reading Grounds at 40th and Farnam, Soaring Wings Vineyard in Springfield, Caffeine Dreams at 4524 Farnam, and at First Central Congregational United Church of Christ at 36th and Harney. In January of 2005 I was a featured artist at the initial fund raising art auction of ARTery, a non-profit Omaha arts support organization. Handmade greeting cards featuring my art are sold in several retail outlets including: Village Stationery in Countryside Village, At the Loft Gallery in the Old Market, Reading Grounds Book Store at 40th and Farnam, and Soaring Wings Vineyards in Springfield. One of my marketing strategies to become better known in the art (purchasing) community is to donate pieces of my art to various non-profit organizations for use in their silent auctions or art sales. I receive some recognition and the recipients receive needed funds. Among the organizations I have donated art to are: Omaha LitFest, Girl Scouts of America, Midlands Hospital, Nebraska Hearing School, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, The ARTery, Visiting Nurses of America, Methodist Hospital, University of Nebraska at Omaha Senior Scholars, University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Arts and Sciences, Ronald Burke Scholarship Fund, Together, Inc., and others. I have been able to contribute thousands of dollars for worthy causes in this fashion and am very happy to be able to turn a few dollars of material and a bit of artistic talent into needed funds for these organizations! If you know of any of these events, please keep me in mind for a donation of my art.