CELEBRATED COLLECTORS DELIGHT IN MOSES' BRIGHT TAKE ON EVERYDAY IMAGES

DALLAS-For a growing group of sharp-witted collectors painter Dale Moses' brilliant-hued view of the world is just the ticket for turning a regular day into a joyful celebration.

Moses, who grew up in Texas, lets his Puckish take on everyday objects roam free across canvas that often delivers larger-than-life electric fans, coffee cups, rubber ducks, and untied sneakers-just to name a few of the images running rampant in Moses' mind.

His work is favored by architects, interior designers and fellow graphics artists-many of whom are just starting to collect what they truly love for their own homes. But celebrity ownership of a Moses is increasing-much to the humble artist's surprise. Donald Trump has purchased Moses' work for his developments. Producer and news commentator Linda Ellerbee, TV's original "Murphy Brown," outbid a slew of appreciative fans at a Dallas auction to take home a Moses "duckie" for her Lucky Duck Productions studio. Visitors to Cessna's aircraft headquarters in Kansas are greeted by Dale Moses originals in the corporate suite. And to popular Texas TV personality Bob Phillips the work of Moses has gone to the dogs-literally to the larger-than-life portraits of Phillips' beloved canine menagerie.

A Far Stretch from Fashion

In the '60s Dale Moses was an ambitious kid from the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas who had his sights set on a big career in fashion illustration. But it was an art professor at The University of Texas at Arlington who saw something more in the young college student. "You can paint," Professor Gene Turner announced. After graduation Moses kept pushing for a career in fashion illustration, working with advertising agencies and fashion retailers to make his mark. Painting stayed on the back burner until the mid '80s when he decided to dabble in the art form for fun. Fun soon turned profitable as friends and clients commissioned more work.

Today Moses paints night and day in his neighborhood studio/gallery in Oak Lawn. Passersby do a daily doubletake at the big, bright images propped up outside his door. Some days it's big cowboy boots entitled "Starry, Starry Night." Other days pedestrians may catch a glimpse of "Electric Blue Dots" and "Pink Flying Things" or "One Turnip, Please" or the popular "Fresh Bouillabaisse" featuring happy goldfish diving in and out of a steaming bowl of the fish dish. Inside the front door you're likely to be greeted by "Miss Tillie in Her Sunday Best," a whimsical cat in Elizabethan collar who peers curiously at you with her enormous green eyes.

Of a more subtle nature are Moses' Tuscan landscapes, colorful village scenes and even more abstract images. Then there are the delightful portraits of the people he knows, as well as the reminiscently French gatherings of bright red poppies and sunflowers among his collection of floral paintings. Never far away from the more pedestrian images of daily life, Moses says his next turn will be toward timepieces--starting with an old-fashioned alarm clock entitled "Time Is Tickin’” for the new millennium.

Giclée, Anyone?

While Moses' framed originals run from the high hundreds to mid thousands, his new limited-edition Giclée prints offer access at lower costs. "Giclée is a printing technique that allows me to produce impressions of the original paintings in archival inks. This means that the prints hold the true color of the original and are not subject to fading over time, often a risk with conventional prints," Moses explained.