Richard E. Fluhr was born in New York City in 1955 and moved to Texas to work as an artist. Beginning with ceramics at age 15 and showing at Ola Podrida Gallery in Dallas, he moved on to the University of Texas at Austin. Fluhr received his BFA from the University of Houston followed by an MFA in printmaking at the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he graduated magna cum laude. He traveled extensively, painting life along the way in watercolor, oil or acrylic, usually on recycled materials, such as paper bags, pamphlets, and receipts. Fluhr exhibited in six galleries in the United States and several galleries in Mexico, where he also maintained a studio in the late 1980s. His art has been shown in the U.S., Russia, and Mexico and is represented in over 900 private and public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; the Detroit Art Institute, Detroit, MI; and the British Museum, London, England. Richard has exhibited in hundreds of group and one-person shows, with work from Spain, Morocco, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela and all over the U.S., including New York shortly after 9/11. He taught at the Art Institute of Houston for 17 years and owned and operated REF Studios, a Houston art gallery from 1990 to 2000, at which time illness slowed him down and he semi-retired while collecting art all along the way.