If you spent any ’70s summer days on Florida’s Panama City Beach or St. George Island, you might have noticed a college student hard at work, grinding out airbrushed art on T-shirts and vehicles. Rather than a run-of-the-mill summer job like lifeguarding or bartending, Lance Rogers ran a profitable, artistic business out of a delivery truck.

“It paid for school,” says Lance. “But I didn’t dare tell my professors. They were teaching me to create art for art’s sake, not money.” From portraits to cartoons and images of muscle cars, Lance painted it all. He says the commissions made him better. “When you’re doing whatever people say versus what you’re comfortable with, it naturally sharpens your skills.”

With a bachelor’s degree in visual arts, Lance was still game to flex his artistic skills in other endeavors. Case in point, he was in a band for 10 years. “It was great,” he says. “I sang and played drums. We even opened for some famous groups.”

After their final set wrapped, he moved back toward the coast. Lance was painting T-shirts again, this time in Madeira Beach. That’s when he decided to make a run at a career in fine art. He’s been doing so successfully ever since.

One of the many subjects Lance has explored through his paintings is chimpanzees. “I’m fascinated by the fact we share 98% of the same DNA [as chimpanzees],” he tells WorthWhile. While humans and chimpanzees are both primates, our behaviors and environments are very different. Upending that paradigm with a brush led to a beloved series of paintings, several of which were commissioned.

For “Love Monkey,” Lance offered a twist on a scene he observed at a restaurant. A beautiful woman was dining with a man, but he seemed more interested in himself and his Bluetooth conversation than in her. Lance represented the woman with Marilyn Monroe, and the young man with a narcissistic chimp.

Lance blended acrylics, used as an underpainting, and water-soluble oils for the piece. “If you look from the bottom of Marilyn’s eye to her jawline, there’s no way I’d get that smoothness with just acrylics,” Lance says.

Now living in St. Petersburg, Florida, the artist continues evolving his body of work and actively participates in the local art community. To learn more about Lance and view additional pieces, visit lancerodgersart.com.