THE BUSINESS OF ART

"Being an artist is a risky occupation and one I don't recommend."

That's an unusual statement from a man who has made his living as an artist for 20 years. But Gary Lucy is anything but sorry he chose to dedicate his life to creating art. In fact, talking to him about his life's work takes him back to his college days, which he calls "the best days of my life."

It was in classes at Southeast Missouri State University that Lucy learned it was possible to earn a living doing what he loves to do.

"I realized that artists didn't have to be dead," he said in an interview from his gallery in Washington, Mo.

"In other words, I realized there were actually living artists that were out there making a living."

Once that revelation took place in his sophomore year, the one-time accounting major chucked his business classes and majored in art.

Since the year after graduating from Southeast in 1971, Lucy has owned his own gallery in Washington and has become one of Missouri's best known artists.

Last year his works filled the old courthouse in downtown St. Louis. More than 35,000 people visited the exhibit.

Beginning in October, Lucy's paintings will be on display at the Southeast Missouri State University Museum. The exhibit runs through Oct. 31.

Lucy also plans to give several lectures at the university about his career. He hopes to inspire a would-be artist to pursue his or her talents as a career.

"There may be students who are leaning in that direction, but until they meet that one person in the field who looks at them eye to eye and says, `Yes, this is something you can do,' you think you can't do it," he said. "That's what happened to me."

Lucy, a native of Caruthersville, didn't aspire to being an artist until the second semester of his sophomore year. Until then he had spent most of his time learning accounting and marketing. He signed up for a drawing class on a whim that semester.

"After that one class it was obvious I wasn't going to stay in the business school," he said.

"That was really my first exposure to art. I also felt more at home with art students. We all shared ideas. That was something that didn't happen with business students."

Lucy, 43, said he wants to talk to students in art and history, another of his strong interests. His art is "a little like taking history and making it live through the canvas," he said.

"I want to teach them a little about the business of art," he said.

Lucy's paintings for the past seven years have focused on the inland waterways in and around Missouri. Several of his paintings feature old-fashioned steamboats along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. He said he spends about 35 percent of his time researching the period of the painting he is working on, including the style of dress of the 1800s.

"The civilizations back then were all based on the inland waterway system," he said. "I try to piece together images to tell a story about the history of our waterway system. And with that I bring up bits and pieces of our own history."

The exhibit at Southeast includes many of these historic river paintings.

Before turning to waterways as a theme, an interest in the environment led Lucy to focus on wildlife as a theme. Early success was realized when Lucy received second place in the prestigious federal duck stamp competition in 1973.

During the next 12 years he studied and depicted wildlife in his paintings. They included "Missouri Wildlife I" and "Missouri Wildlife II." The latter work is on display in the Washington, Mo., Public Library.

Lucy was also commissioned by Southwestern Bell to create two statewide phone book covers.

In 1985 he began searching for a new theme. One day while gazing out the window of his studio at the Missouri River, he decided to shift his focus to rivers and their impact on human life.

In 1987, Lucy discussed the idea with representatives from the Jefferson National Expansion Historical Association and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Both of the organizations sponsored his 1991 exhibit in St. Louis: "Inland Waterways: The Way West."

Lucy said he approaches his paintings in much the same way other artists do.

"Most artists work in terms of composition and lighting," he said. "The only difference in my pieces are that they are as historically accurate as we can make them."

Lucy completes about three commissioned paintings per year. During that time he also works on several smaller pieces. All of his planned paintings are sold through 1993. He and his wife, Sandy, own the gallery, which is open

seven days a week. He even opens his studio to visitors on Saturday and Sunday.

Lucy said insecurity of the financial rewards of the art field led him to spend his first year after college teaching elementary art in the Washington School District. After just one year, he decided to follow his dream of being an artist full time.

"I felt this was just more important to me. I wanted to create art, not teach it," he said.

"I liked teaching, but really three or four weeks of it would have been enough for me."

Lucy said his career has not disappointed him. Most of his river works will be displayed in 2004 in an exhibit tentatively named "Inland Waterways: The Highways of Our Heritage."

That exhibit could be displayed in St. Louis or Washington, D.C., at the American History Museum. It will encompass 12 years of works. That show is also being sponsored by the Jefferson National Expansion Museum and the Jefferson National Expansion Historical Association.

For now, though, Lucy is concentrating on becoming an even better-known artist.

Did he ever think he'd make it this far from the "best days of his life" in college in Cape Girardeau?

"I may have even come a little farther than I thought I would," he said.