[5] In 2000-2001, while living in Happy Valley, Oregon, Lough focused on landscape photography and drew his entire income from art festival circuit artwork sales.

[1] In 2001, his efforts paid off and he was invited to participate in the Lake Oswego, Oregon art festival, close to where he grew up.

Later that year, in December, Lough opened his City Center Gallery in CityCenter Las Vegas,[7] a 16,797,000-square-foot (1,560,500 m2) mixed-use, urban complex on 76 acres (31 ha) located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada that opened on December 16, 2009.

Along with American glass sculptor and entrepreneur Dale Chihuly and contemporary bronze sculpture figurative artist Richard MacDonald, Lough's works contribute to comprising a Gallery Row of Fine Art at CityCenter.

[14] Also in 2012, Trewin Framery and Art Gallery in Modesto, California maintained an ongoing exhibit of Lough's work.