Artist: Markus PiersonTitle: Coyote Portrait of O'KeefeMedium: Canvas SerigraphOrientation: verticalImage Size: 10 x 11.5 inchesPaper Size: 10 x 11.5 inchesEdition Size: 175: Signed by the artist, individually numbered, accompanied by certificate of authenticity signed by the publisher.Excerpts from his book, But I Digress, A Coyote's View of Art History * * GEORGIA O'KEEFFE * * Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, rogue pirates sailed the seas, pillaging and murdering, eating meat, not brushing their teeth and smelling horrible. By the time Georgia O'Keeffe grew up, the pirates were long gone, and so we will never know who had more willpower. What we do know is that no one who knew her could match her in this regard. * * Things went well for you at Georgia's ghost ranch as long as you wanted to do everything Georgia wanted to do at the precise millisecond she decided she wanted to do it and only for as long. Otherwise, watch that cactus thorn, buster, its needle goes in and stays in. * * But I ask: Who cares? Let's talk art. Georgia started out in Manhattan painting flowers and abstracts and the coolest New York cityscapes you ever saw. She's a young raven-haired beauty when she meets gallery owner/photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, who promptly boots his wife and starts clicking his quivering shutter about a billion times. The subject? Her naked body in all its splendor. Whoops, I stopped talking about her art. She painted flowers like my mom folds towels, with exacting precision and intense passion, painted them in extreme close-up views that seem like abstract masterpieces to some and female anatomy lessons to others. * * In 1929 she cruised past New Mexico and the land of the giant watermelon (the Sandia Mountain Range – believe it or not, that's what they're named for) drew her like a cash-starved Democrat Pol to a shifty Indonesian billionaire (oooh, how topical for now). She moved there for good after Stieglitz died, and she painted what she wanted, when she wanted, how she wanted till she died. * * She painted New Mexico, an enchanted land, at its most mystical. And it is mystical. Stand outside at midnight on the outskirts of Taos – something lingers in the air. Georgia took deep, gulping gasps of that air and held it in, then let it come out and fairly engulf her work. Someone who hasn't been there never quite gets this, and someone who has, grows an abiding love for her stuff. Add me to that list. * * I painted some bones floating in the air behind her in my portrait of her. Some ninny looked at it and asked me if that was a sexual innuendo. I mean, hey, are you nuts? Absolutely not. * Biography * * Markus Pierson was born in 1961 and raised in the small farming town of Grand Ledge, Michigan, where his father owned a popular restaurant. A self-proclaimed reckless "racer", Markus was the youngest and most challenging of the four Pierson children. * * While a student, an encouraging art teacher swung wide the door to Markus' talent and profoundly moved him. However, the Grand Ledge art scene was somewhat lacking, leading Markus to take on a number of odd jobs before accidentally stumbling upon accounting as a means to making a living. After a near-fatal bout with Crohn's Disease in early 1985, he declared that the accountant was "dead" and in his place was a man pursuing his dream of becoming a successful artist. * * The Coyote Series was born in June of 1986, after Markus heard the Joni Mitchell song, "Coyote." He loved it, played it often and memorized the words. The focus of the song, a guy referred to as "Coyote," is a reckless, footloose Casanova type fellow - Pierson aspired to be the carefree romancer described in those lyrics. Then he did something he'd never done before or since: Markus made a drawing of a song. * * Over the next six months Markus painted billboards by day for a living and drew his Coyotes into the night. To the wall above his desk he taped these words, "No one works this hard and this smart - and has it come to nothing." Within a year, he walked out of Artexpo in New York City with commitments from 110 art galleries who sought to represent his work. * * In the decades that followed, Pierson's work has evolved to include a vast array of paintings, drawings, sculpture, hand-pulled serigraphs and original found-object works. Over time, the metaphor of the Coyote has taken on a more poignant and profound purpose. At its essence, the work urges us to pursue our dreams, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and to celebrate all of life's ups and downs. He has had nearly one hundred solo exhibitions in galleries across America, Australia and New Zealand, while also being featured at various prestigious international fairs including Art Miami, Artexpo New York, Sofa Chicago, Chicago Contemporary & Classic, and palmbeach3. Markus has amassed a collector base which includes Heads of State, major corporations and celebrities worldwide. * * Markus' wife and muse is artist, Sheryl Pierson. The two live and work in a converted loft in Kansas City, Missouri. * * "There's no doubt in my mind that my success has more to do with luck than talent, more to do with stubbornness than vision, more to do with ignorance than insight, but the fact remains that I pursued my dream and attained it against staggering odds. I say this now to anyone who will listen: even if I had failed, it would have been worth it. Better to face a brutal truth than to grow old wondering what might have been. " Markus Pierson *