"It was only in 1995 that I sat down to paint something which might be hung in a gallery," Shag says. "Everything before that was meant to be reproduced commercially, but enough people started asking for originals that I decided I'd better paint something 'real'." Because his previous work was often reproduced up to several million times, Shag wanted the gallery work to be one-of-a-kind, and would not make prints or reproductions of the paintings. That attitude changed in 1999, after enough people had asked him to make prints available. Several lithos, and serigraphs have been released through various galleries and fine-art publishers since then, and more are in production.

The paintings themselves have proved immensely popular, surprising even Shag. "I just wanted to make pretty pictures -- something I'd like to look at and own," he explains. Nevertheless, the paintings have struck some sort of chord with the public. Every one of Shag's solo shows have been complete sell-outs, including a recent showing of 25 paintings at the Outré Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. "I wasn't sure if the imagery -- the night-club scenes and cheesy jet-setters, the tropical bars and swingers -- would translate outside of the U.S. But it went over really well, and the Australians seemed to relate to what I was doing."

Shag lives with his wife and daughter in their Southern California hideout, a tiki bar/supervillain's-lair. When not painting, Shag spends his time collecting "lots of old stuff," and working on his 1964 Ford Thunderbird.