I have been reading about art in the San Francisco area.  There is an
artist/sculture, Gary Epting.  I believe I went to school with him in
Michigan.  Is there any way to verify this, to find a biography about
him, or find a photograph of him online?

Hey artlover - 

Why don't you just email him?  Here's a artistic company, TATU, that
he and Janet Fouts run. The FAQ link tells about the company and
mentions him as a founder. The Contact link gives their email address
and phone numbers.

http://www.tatu.com/faq.html
http://www.tatu.com/contact.html

That link came from this source (just so you know it's the same Gary
Epting) :
"Gary Epting is a painter and sculptor living and working in San
Francisco"

http://www.foggy.com/artists.html


Was your Gary Epting once involved in the Restaurant Industry? If so,
he's your man.

"ONTHERAIL is the brainchild of two refugees from the restaurant
industry. Gary Epting and Janet Fouts, co-founders of ONTHERAIL, met
while working at the venerable Square One Restaurant in San Francisco.
"

"Gary, a waiter/painter, was convinced that jpg compression could be
applied to pigment as well as pixels. It seemed natural to them to set
aside the time-honored antipathy between the crafts, chef vs. waiter,
and pool their skills."

http://www.ontherail.com/site/about/index.asp

That page also gives contact information (email and phone)

" Gary Epting is an internationally exhibited painter and sculptor as
well as a respected writer. … Having an extensive knowledge of the
restaurant scene in San Francisco has made him a sought after design
consultant. He is involved with restaurant design from the view of the
people who have to make the physical space work."

http://www.ontherail.com/site/about/bios.asp

One painting by Epting:
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-05-03/artpick.asp

So, I would say your best way to verify if he's the guy you know is to
send him an email.  Tell him who you are and ask if he is from
Michigan. Who knows, maybe you've found a long-lost acquaintance!

Good Luck - K~

Search Terms

"Gary Epting" artist
"Gary Epting" (on Google Images Search)
"Gary Epting" Bio

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Request for Answer Clarification by artlover-ga on 15 Jul 2002 19:29 PDT

knowlege seeker - ga ... thanks for your contributions...those are all
the things I already found during my search.  I am not sure I am ready
to make that contact unless I am sure it is him...delicate
subject...thought maybe a photo or more complete bio would mention
early background.

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Request for Answer Clarification by artlover-ga on 16 Jul 2002 06:27 PDT

In reading my question over, I did not specify that I wanted an early
biography. All the links you mentioned were ones I had already
explored. With so much available, I had hoped there would be a true
early bio, not just the work accomplished in recent years.  Perhaps a
better question would have been, "Where can I find a photo of a San
Franciso artist?"

---

Clarification of Answer by knowledge_seeker-ga on 16 Jul 2002 09:33 PDT

Hi again artlover,

I'm sorry this question didn't go as you had planned.  Don't worry,
you aren’t the first person to realize that your question should have
been phrased differently.  Until Google issues us our mind-reading
caps, this is probably going to happen a lot. :-)

I actually did do some more research last night after I got your note.
 One of the things I followed up was Epting's old website from 1999 -

http://www.foggy.com/janindex.html 

but unfortunately, as you can see here - 

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.foggy.com/janindex.html

- although there is record of it, the internet archives wasn't able to
capture the site.

Here is my thought on this whole project - A search for "Gary Epting"
only yields 3 pages of Google results and they are ALL the same man.
An image search only yields 1 result and it a painting by the SAME
man. So, it's not like this is a common name. (You should have seen my
results when I was searching for "Bob Clark" for a customer!)

So, sure there could still be other Gary Eptings around, but now let's
narrow it down some more. There are some rather clear (and somewhat
unique) personal preferences reflected in this man's bio and artwork. 
If these match the Gary Epting you knew, then it is highly likely he's
the same man. I mean really, what are the chances of two people with a
fairly unique name have these same preferences?

So, those are my thoughts.  I'm sorry I couldn't help you out with
finding a photo or a more in-depth bio. I really have done a thorough
search, so I'm not sure it's worth the effort or money to try to post
your question again in a revised form. Of course that's up to you.

Oh, and by the way... there is always the "anonymous email" route. But
we won't be doing that for you here. :-)

Best of luck to you -

-K~

Thanks knowledge seeker....my first experience with this.  You
certainly came back with all that was available on the net.  I was
hoping you would find more!Thanks for your help and comments!!!