Above we a scene with French circus ring created by artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  I cannot overstate the importance of Lautrec in my own work.  During my time as an American in Paris, no other artist conveyed the spirit of the French Circus & the Cabaret in Paris like I saw in the work of Lautrec.  Today Lautrec's work is synonymous with the Paris nightlife  of bohemian life in Paris during 19th century. The art posters of Toulouse-Lautrec revolutionized how art came to be enjoyed and consumed in every day life and his art posters continue to be enjoyed world wide.  Lautrec made it "fashionable" for the public to consume and appreciate commercial artists.  In this regard, he was a forerunner to the commercialization of artists like Picasso, Matisse, and later Andy Warhol, and even Keith Haring.  Haring took the  commercialization even one step further and opened his own gift shop where he sold his own reproductions. Nonetheless, in the art world it is known that that Toulouse was the first artist to blur the lines between fine art and advertising...

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