WELCOME TO A DREAM COME TRUE

Hello, and welcome to Gallery Goodrum! My name is Don Goodrum and I’m the artist hereabouts and I can’t tell you how happy I am to be able to welcome you to this gallery of my work.

My mother used to say I started drawing in the cradle (though I’m not sure that finger-painting with the contents of a dirty diaper really constitutes “drawing”), and while of have no memory of being a bassinette-bound Rembrandt, I can say with all seriousness that I’ve spent my entire life, or as much of it as I can remember anyway, drawing pictures and writing stories. When I was seven, my grandfather put a copy of a Chamber of Mysteries comic book in my hand (that may not actually be the name of the book, but that’s what I remember) and my life forever changed as I discovered Superman and Batman and a whole universe of characters I could draw and enjoy. For all my love of comics, however, I was a lazy student and even though I knew there was a house style at the big comics companies at the time, I refused to conform to it. As such I worked sporadically in underground comics and fanzines and finally, for a very brief time in the 80’s actually worked for DC Comics, though I don’t think anyone there was actually aware of it at the time. Long story…I’ll tell it later.

When comics didn’t work out, I switched to newspaper comic strips like Bloom County and Doonesbury, and despite dedicating myself wholly to the work, I was unable to break into the business and syndicate a comic strip of my own. I came so close…twice…but never quite got there. SIGH. Now, that there are webtoons, it might be time to try again.

Around this time, with the birth of my third daughter, I had a real stroke of luck and some posters I drew for my daughter’s nursery were seen and turned into a childrens’ book called Lettres Acadienne (you can find it on Amazon) and for the next several years, I thought I was going to be the next Maurice Sendak. Alas, that was not to be, so I finally put my artistic aspirations aside for a time and concentrated on providing for my family, thinking that someday, at some point, I’d finally be able to return to the drawing table and get serious about my artwork once again.

I had no idea it would take almost thirty-five years. Finally. at age 66, I’m  blissfully retired and settled and ready to begin pursuing this life-long dream. Better late than never, right?

Anyway, welcome to the gallery and the website. Feel free to take a look around. There aren’t many pieces yet, but I’m a drawing fool these days and there will be more work being added all the time. Prints are sold at a more expensive “fine art” price point on good paper for collectors, but we’re also selling posters of the work with a banner across the bottom with  my name on it, printed on slick poster paper, for those who see something they like and want to buy, but don’t quite have the means to seriously invest. Hey, we’ve all gotta start somewhere. In addition to the work for sale, I also plan to install an Archives page of old work that might be worth looking at, even if you’re not interested in buying it or hanging it on the wall.

Enjoy the work. Email me if you have any questions. Make suggestions. Buy lots of prints. Put my grandkids through college. You know how it goes. The main thing is that I hope you enjoy the work and I’m so happy you’re here.