I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Youngstown State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach, with majors in Sculpture and minors in Photography from each institution. Throughout a lengthy career with the Walt Disney Company, I continued to pursue my personal artwork, which included commissions for unique functional-art furniture pieces as well as purely aesthetic three-dimensional sculpture, I have exhibited my work, and sold pieces at various galleries around Los Angeles, New York City, Portland, Oregon and Youngstown, Ohio. 

 

During the course of my Disney tenure, I decided to leave the company, and formed Larry A. Designs, taking on a multitude of projects, ranging from custom exotic hardwood fabrication for the King of Saudi Arabia to models for architectural firms, art-direction on TV commercials, all the while continuing to create my own personal artwork.

 

I eventually received a “too-good-to-pass-up” opportunity to return to Disney, which enabled me to “bridge my service” with the company, and travel the world. Throughout both of my stints at Disney, I always had “art-in-the-works”, and I closed out my Disney career on a high note as the Executive Producer and Creative Director for the Main Entrance of Shanghai Disneyland. The five years I spent on this final project was the first time I was unable to sustain my personal art focus, due to the overwhelming responsibilities, which included much back-and-forth travel to China prior to moving there for the final two years of construction.

 

China was inspiring in many ways, while also being a wake-up-call about the environment, and a cultural awakening. Even with the intense work-load, I managed to get to art galleries and museums, and even formed relationships with some of the local artists, whose work now hangs on my living room walls. 

 

My wife, Maureen, and I have both retired from our long careers, and have been constantly exploring the vibrant art world of Los Angeles by visiting its’ many galleries and museums. I have also been meeting with other artists and beginning to show my work in galleries once again. As an artist, I am excited about the new-found freedom that comes with retirement, and even though it has taken me some time to get back into a creative mode, it is now happening and I am grateful for that. I have multiple pieces in-progress, and ideas for more specifically related to this series. My intent is to begin approaching galleries as soon as I feel I have enough new work to generate interest, and then reach out to those galleries that I feel would be a fit.