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Charming Tails By Fitz & Floyd
"To this day, I still go home to my parents' farm to walk and hike through the woods," says Dean Griff, the artist behind Charming Tails. "Through my designs of mice and other woodland animals, I reach back to that world where I grew up, where I first paid attention to wildlife and began to draw the things I saw." During his years at Stockbridge Valley Central School, a developing interest in drawing led Dean to study art rather than enroll in agriculture classes with his siblings. In 1983, at the age of 23, Dean left the family farm to take a job as assistant to the curator of the Syracuse University Art Collection. Entries and awards for his wildlife paintings in university art shows followed, along with a small business in hand-painted hanging ornaments, which Dean originally gave as gifts to his friends. In 1989 Dean moved from New York to Florida to work as a set designer in the state's growing television industry. The change in scenery gave his art a new dimension, and soon he began creating characters that led directly to the development of Charming Tails. Professional success and recognition have followed. In 1997, Dean was honored with the prestigious "Artist of the Year" award presented by the National Association of Limited Edition Dealers (NALED). NALED also presented Dean and Fitz and Floyd with the coveted "Rising Star Award" for Charming Tails. Today, Dean continues expanding his woodland world of Charming Tails and expressing the love of nature he learned on the farm and now brings to life from his home in Florida.

Charming Tails