THIS YEAR'S CARD

For almost fifteen years I have been illustrating my own Christmas cards to give to close friends and relatives. I print and assemble them myself and usually end up delivering them by hand. This years card is from a drawing I did over three years ago. I rediscovered it while going through some old drawings a few weeks back. I had ditched this drawing last minute for another piece I had going at the time. This piece was drawn from Union Square San Francisco watching the Christmas tree trimmers go through their ritual of decorating the city tree.

I remember the shapes of the decorations, the tree, the crane structure and the composition looking interesting to me. I remember wanting some color in it but not wanting it to feel like a painting, but more like a drawing. It's funny, sometimes when I look back at old work, I get a fresh view of it, an almost detached feeling (or seperation) from ever having done the piece, and it allows me to enjoy it all over again or in a new light that I missed before.

Images: ©Copyright Trey Gallaher

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a BIG thanks for all your love and support over the last year. It was a great year filled with a lot of new exciting work coming out of my studio. My Sagacity series was a big success and my show at Sweet Inspiration was a great kick-off. I received a lot of insightful feedback and already have plans for new additions to the series as well as future exhibitions. I'm now back in the studio again working on some new pieces for another new series. The upcoming year hopes to be productive. I'm also continuing to upgrade the website including some new sections and adding more work so check back. Be safe everybody and love one another... Cheers!
















Photos: The family pooches by the fire (Klaus top), (Klaus, Kurt and I below)
©Copyright Trey Gallaher

ALL YOU HAVE ARE YOUR DREAMS

It was almost fifteen years ago that I painted this humble little scholastic piece for a Christmas card to send to my family and friends back home (usually to build sympathy for more money and food). I was months away from graduating from San Jose State University with my new bachelors degree in graphic design and illustration. I wasn't sleeping, eating, showering or shaving but pulling all-nighters to barely finish paintings before day-light and the end of the semester. I remember being filled with sweet anticipation, hope and a far-off dream of my future that propelled my classmates and I forward with such passion and determination.

Not much has really changed since those days. I'm still up all hours of the night, still making my illustrations and paintings and still dreaming of what I want to do with my work, but now I'm suddenly wondering "where has the time gone?" and that it really is true what they say that all we have are our dreams. It's not whether you became what you thought you would, made that money you struggled so hard for or became an over-night sensation but that you continue to dream for tomorrow. For this I am grateful, grateful for the people that believed in me and stayed by my side, listened and didn't let me give up. And now that I am a teacher, and watch my own batch of tired, sleepy-eyed, hunger-panged, dream-filled potentials drag their heels through the classroom door to make that one last deadline and critique, that I stop and laugh, a joyous laugh down deep at the vigor and determination of my own youth, the youth that still lives in me and that our dreams never really leave us but simply mold into something even more encompassing and more beautiful and that all we have to do is to live it, keep believing in it and to share it with whomever will stop to listen.

Image: ©Copyright 1995 Trey Gallaher