Anno Domini gallery

About the Artists:

William Schaff
William Schaff has been a working artist for over two decades. Known primarily for his mastery at album artwork, (Okkervil River, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Songs:Ohia/ Magnolia Electric Co./ Jason Molina, Brown Bird, Graveface records, etc.) Schaff is also the founder of Warren, Rhode Island’s “Fort Foreclosure”. The building, lovingly named without the least bit of irony, serves as Schaff’s home and Studio as well as home and meeting place for other artists (most notable resident musicians MorganEve Swain, and the Late David Lamb, both of Brown Bird). There — financial earnings be damned! — William fills his days creating works of art for private commissions, bands, and his own examinations of human interaction.

Mike Egan
I was born outside of Pittsburgh, PA in 1977, currently based in Portland, OR. I received my BFA at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2000. I focused on printmaking at the time which is where I learned about artists like Jose Guadalupe Posada and the German Expressionists like Kathe Kollwitz. After I finished school and returned home I did not have the necessary supplies to continue making my prints, so I turned to painting so I could keep making art. While I wanted to be an artist I felt having a day job that I found interesting was important. I had discovered that there was a mortuary school in Pittsburgh where I could get licensed as a funeral director/embalmer. I knew nothing about the business or what I was getting myself into. I went to school for a year and followed that up with an internship for another year. I learned how to do removals, embalm, do restorations, dress and casket people, do the cosmetics and assist on funerals. I continued to paint and made a lot of bad art. I eventually got a job as an embalmer out in Reading, PA in 2005. Between four locations we did 500 calls a year, so it was a busy time for me. The hard thing about being an embalmer is that you're on call when someone dies, so I spent a lot of time alone in my apartment waiting for the phone to ring. This is where I learned to craft my paintings and style. I thought back to my printmaking days in 2000 and how I loved the bold line work I was doing. So I started to paint in that style and things started to click for me. In 2006, a friend of mine put together a gallery show in Pittsburgh and included my paintings. I sold three the opening night and thought I'm doing something right. I've been working with galleries all over the U.S., (including 3 solo exhibits with Anno Domini,) Canada and the UK ever since.