18 Jul Georgia O’Keeffe & Artisan

The original Georgia O’Keeffe check to Artisan is now safely framed, secured and displayed behind the counter of our Santa Fe store. It was written on May 1st, 1978 at our old Canyon Road store and was for a tube of Winsor & Newton Flake White #2 oil paint. The original owners, Jack Young and Bill Banta, never cashed the check and displayed a copy of it for years at the store. Problem was is that they also never told anybody what they did with the original check. They both passed on — and the mystery remained as to where the original check was. Years after their deaths, I was throwing away old invoices one by one in the back of the Canyon Road store when I noticed a plain white envelope in the folder with O’Keeffe written on the outside. I opened it up and the mystery was solved…there was the original. I had almost thrown it out with a bunch of old invoices.

Artisan is now celebrating our 40th year in business and it sure makes us reminisce about all the great customers, famous or not, and all the great memories we have accumulated over the years. Thank you all for supporting us for so many years and for making it so much fun.