how it all started...

stylized view of the 1st tee at Bethpage Black Course
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a stylized, menacing bunker on the Black Course
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A graduate of Parsons School of Design (NYC), I've been a professional illustrator all my adult life... and have also played golf since I was a young boy. I played well enough as a teenager to win the Vermont State Junior Amateur Championship, and as a young man worked in the golf business for several years, first as an Assistant Professional at the Yale University Golf Club, then at Racebrook Country Club, both in Connecticut. During that time I was also a registered apprentice in the PGA, passing their playing ability test (PAT) and also completing the first stage of their business school.(visit sasgolf.com to read my full bio)
In my illustration career I create images for clients in magazines, advertising, children's picture books, product packaging, etc... However the golf drawings, paintings and graphics I also created over the years were made just for myself, never as an assignment for a commercial client. Very few people knew I even created golf related images.
Back in 2009 the US Open, conducted by the USGA, was to be played at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, Long Island, just a short distance outside of Manhattan (NYC) where I live. The Black Course is a course I've played before, so I decided, just for the fun of it, to create an image/design of a US Open/Black Course event poster. I created one, then another and another... having such a fun time that in the end I created seven different posters showcasing the Black Course as the 2009 US Open Championship host course. I presented a few of them in February 2009 to the Marketing Director at the USGA, Mary Lopuszynski, but they had already selected an official poster/print for the 2009 US Open event and in fact had already passed the date for finalizing all their merchandise selections.
The Bethpage Black Course images I had created was a turning point for me. I decided that I'd pursue a whole new direction with my artistic talents by joining my life long interest in the game of golf with my artistic talents as a career. Since I continue to work in the illustration field using my name Steven Salerno, I therefore decided that I'd promote my golf art images using my full name Steven Anthony Salerno, just to create a bit of an identity separation between my continuing career in illustration and my budding golf art career. The name of my golf art web site is SASgolf.com -which are my initials, S.A.S.
So, next I tentatively posted these 2009 Bethpage Black Course golf art images onto my illustration blog site, while I figured out how I was going to promote my golf art. In the summer of 2009, from out of the blue, I received a call from Mike McAllister, golf writer and the Managing Editor of the PGA TOUR official web site. He explained that he'd seen my golf art images, and asked if I'd like to create art images of the tour's top players every week in their Player Spotlight feature on pgatour.com. Of course I did! So throughout the rest of 2009, every week, I created portraits of many of the tour stars, including Tiger WoodsPhil MickelsonPadraig HarringtonSteve StrickerCamilo Villegas, and others...
This project connection with the PGA TOUR further propelled me to want to make the leap into going beyond my career in illustration and also becoming the best golf artist I can be... so I created and launched sasgolf.com to display and sell limited edition golf art prints reproduced from my golf art drawings, paintings and graphics.
Visit sasgolf.com to view all the various "galleries" of my prints available to you, for display in your home or office. If you love the game, you'll certainly find a print you'd enjoy owning. These striking prints are printed on 100% cotton rag-based archival fine art papers using vivid permanent pigment inks. The superb inkjet printing process, called "giclee", is the same ultra-fine printing process now used by museums to produce highly accurate reproduction prints of drawings and paintings in their collection.
Posted above are a few of my Bethpage Black Course art images...