Several years ago, a former partner and I took a road trip down to the southeast, and one of our stops was Nashville, TN. After hours of driving and no particular destination for the evening, we exhaustively hunted the city for a decent coffee shop. Perhaps our snooty New Englander expectations were unfounded, as we expected every metropolis would have some cool, hole in the wall cafe - we could not find one in the country music capital of the world. Eventually, we meandered just outside the downtown area and found our oasis, a hip little spot with art on the walls and friendly folks serving the caffeine we so direly needed. Slumped in our seats over our respective sketchbooks, a super friendly young guy introduced himself and inquired if we were artists. We ended up chatting about art for a few hours and hitting up a bar for some billiards later. It's been years now, but today I stumbled upon that friendly young guy's site and it appears Casey Pierce continues to make excellent art. I love his collage-y approach that melds realist elements with graphic shapes and painterly bits, and despite the obvious technical skill, his work remains light-hearted and full of movement. Right on. Check his work out for yourself at caseypierce.com