About Stew Vreeland

Stew was born in Miami Beach but raised on a remote farm in the middle of Iowa. The “Where are we, really”  contrast of those two worlds was not lost on him. In that same  Bizzaro World vein, he started engineering at Iowa State and graduated in art from nearby Drake University. He was in the Navy during major conflicts, but was always on shore duty as an illustrator draftsman in hotspots, such as  California, Italy, and Maine. Like the recruiting poster, says:  Join the Navy, See the World, AND, let them pay for graduate school at Northwestern‘s Medill school, which got him a solid foundation in marketing and business and got his foot in the door of what was then the largest advertising agency in the world:  J. Walter Thompson - as an Art Director.   That formative experience eventually led him to Maine, to start his own design firm, which he was able to sell to free himself up to do the art that was always calling out to him.   In addition to interdisciplinary art projects of all sizes he has created massive gardens and cemeteries in Louisiana and renovated historic homes and a Victorian church in Maine. But Texas, kept calling him even in Maine.  He was intrigued with the Houston Art Car Show and built his CakeCar and towed it to Texas for the show. five days, he says, by the way, is a long way to tow.  But, anything for art!