Art Gallery • Art Gallery Services in Canton and Central Illinois • Snowman Studios Inc. Art Gallery Services
snowman studios INC.
It all began in ART class...with Scott's dad as the teacher. High school friends turned sweethearts, we started dating in November of our senior year. We dated for almost three years and married mid-way through college while majoring in Art Education. In 1989 we began doing freelance graphic design, murals and sign work out of our home in Springfield, IL. Early clients included the U.S. Department of Agriculture, local schools and the Springfield Art Association. We moved back to our hometown of Canton, IL in the summer of 1989 after finishing our first master’s degrees at Sangamon State University (now University of Illinois at Springfield) majoring in Art and Children’s Literature. We continued to grow our business when we built a home near Canton Lake in the summer of 1993. Our home-based studio houses the corporate office as well as a painting/drawing studio and two separate sign and mural painting studios.
From 1989 to 2019 we both taught art full-time at local educational facilities.
In the fall of 2009 we had a life-changing experience when we were introduced to Mr. Bill Cook of Bloomington, IN, for the first time. We were fortunate to win a commission to paint four large murals for installation on the south side of Fulton Square, the JCPenney building in Canton. The murals were completed in the summer of 2010 and dedicated in September. In 2011, the Cook group commissioned us again to create a 14’x20’ mural for the wall behind the boutique hotel built near the square in downtown Canton.
From 2011 to 2017, Snowman Studios Inc. owned and operated Canton's FIRST downtown ART GALLERY. The location at 35 S. Main was very successful, but the company sold the building and moved all operations back to home base in order to focus on an unexpected new venture.
In 2015, we adopted two reindeer. We opened our home to the public as an experiment in late November of that year. People loved visiting and we saw an opportunity to develop our small family farm into an agritourism destination. As we retired from full-time teaching in 2019, we focused all of our time and attention on developing our art business and the reindeer farm.
Today, we continue to look for new ways to improve what we do. Each year we take on new artistic challenges while building our home base into a fun holiday destination for families. The skills developed over a lifetime have made it possible to do what we do. Our love of art, animals, Christmas, teaching and creating have all come together in the most wonderful way. Each year is a new adventure and we look forward to what comes next.