Gary Coleman

Gary Colemans art career had a long gestation period, its academic inception going back to grade school where his preoccupation with drawing contributed to his earning a second try at first grade. He would not feel comfortable calling himself an artist until many years later, after his retirement from thirty years of teaching high school English and history.Gary minored in art and majored in English at San Jose State University, with the intention of becoming a suffering writer. Upon earning his BA, he entered a field with, he would soon discover, far more potential for suffering. He started teaching. He admits that his first year was a disaster. Following that year, he delivered milk to the homes of his students families and their neighbors, but he also learned of a dream job.In 1964, he applied for and got a position with the Department of State Diplomatic Courier Service to be stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. He accompanied top secret materials to virtually every capital city in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Whereas teaching offered very little time to paint, the courier job made it available, there often being a week or two of free time between trips. It also opened opportunities to see great accomplishments in ar...