As a child, I was fascinated with all forms of art. I did lots of drawing and still consider that to be the bases for any other art form I do. The first oil painting I can remember doing was a “paint by number” of Leonardo de Vinci’s “Last Supper” but I also remember doing my own painting on the back side of the canvas board with the little bits of paints leftover in the small numbered jars that came with the set.

I was fortunate to be able to attend Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City, Kansas which had a great art department with a number of different art classes available each semester. When my councilor would allow me, I would take a different art class in each open period.

After graduating high school in 1971 I attended Kansas City, Kansas Community College again taking all the art related classes that I could get by with. There I was able to study drawing, oil painting, and art history with Jim Mirick, watercolor & acrylic painting, 3-damintual design & sculpture, and silk screen printing with Ion Paleologue, and printmaking, pottery, and jewelry making with Clint Thornton.

After college I worked as an apprentice with a local blacksmith Kansas City Kansas, two different area potters, a candle maker in the River Queue, did leaded glass and cut semi precious stones with an artist near the Brookside area of Kansas City Missouri. Some of these jobs I would be paid for while others I’d do in exchange for studio space and the opportunity to learn and refine new skills. While busy with these endeavors, I would also attend fairs and festivals around the Midwest selling my artwork. I took additional classes at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City Art Institute where I studied wood, stone & metal sculpture, stained glass, glass blowing, photography, art marketing and art economics.

Although I was able to make a living, working for others, and selling the work I was able to do in other artist workshops, I dreamed of having my own studio. When I was offered a job with Phillips Petroleum in 1979 I saw it as a way to achieve my dream, thinking I could work four or five years and save enough money to be able to open my own studio. After all, I would be making four times the money I was able to make doing shows and other part time work. After three years with Phillips they decided to close the Kansas City Refinery and I was asked to move to Borger, Texas to work on the construction and start-up of a new unit being built there. “The plan” changed some when in Borger I met my wife, Ruth. Getting married and raising a family caused my four or five-year plan to become slightly extended.

During the time I worked for Phillips I never gave up the dream of having my own studio. When Phillips merged with Conoco in 2001 I saw my opportunity and took an early retirement. I asked Ruth where she wanted to live. She wanted to be close to her mother, who lives in Idabel Oklahoma. I agreed, on the condition that we stay in Texas. This brought me to Red River County and Clarksville Texas.

I bought a dilapidated building, originally built in 1882, at the corner of Walnut and Main Streets on the Historic Downtown Square of Clarksville, Texas. After 2 years of restoration to the building, Square Corner Artworks opened on February 6th 2008. I now have my own studio where I can work on whichever type of art I might want to at the moment, as will as my own gallery to show my artwork.

Life is an accumulation of our emotions and art is the communication of life. Positive emotions are Love, Desire, Passion, Wonderment, & Delight. Negative emotions are Anger, Hatred, Disgust, Melancholy, & Sorrow. I do pencil, charcoal & pastel drawings, oil, acrylic & watercolor paintings, metal sculptures, pottery and mixed media artwork in an attempt to invoke the viewers positive emotions.

L. Algaier – March 2008