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Greg's Art HistoryDeveloping as an Artist
"And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous." ~ Albert Einstein The following is an overview of my development as an artist. There are many special people who have impacted my personal and artistic attitudes. Indeed, their positive teachings and examples are cherished within my soul and blessed in my heart. They help to greatly influence who I am, but when it comes to learning the technical skills of painting, I did not have a formal teacher. How then did I learn to paint and how did I come to the artistic path? Discovering the Artistic Path "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." -Frank Lloyd Wright Throughout primary schooling I had basic art classes, but my first real-life art lesson occurred while looking at nature. In this way I can say the Creator is my first art teacher. When I was sixteen I saw a sunset, which was breathtaking. Although many sunsets came and went by the time I was sixteen, I had never seen such a thing. I remember being inspired for days after; and simply being amazed that such a thing exists. It was an awakening, which put me on the artist's path. In high school I did not create very much art, but I did see some of the greatest art ever created. In my senior year of high school I visited the Grand Canyon with one of my brothers. The Canyon was enough to confirm my suspicion that nature has beauty and lessons for us to discern and apply to life. In addition to the Canyon, we visited many other amazing places throughout Arizona, including Saguara National Park, dream-like waterfalls and inspiring mountain ranges. These experiences gave me a burning desire to create. At the same time when I entered college I believed that nature and the study of human perception could teach me to make art. In other words, I wanted to train myself in art through the experiences and lessons found in nature and psychology. So, in college I studied psychology, joined environmental groups and began to make arts and crafts. In my first year of school I tried tie-dying and within a year I sold a couple tie-dyes to a professor. This gave me the encouragement to continue dying and my little interest grew into a little business. In my third and fourth years of school I was making custom tie-dyed tees and tapestries for students, professors, organizations and shops. I used the money I earned for living expenses and I was hoping that tie-dying would be a stepping stone towards painting, which was my bigger goal. Learning to Paint - Live Dyes© One day in college, while working with tie dyes, a friend and I discovered a new artistic synthesis. It involved drawing (or painting) on a tie-dye in order to bring out forms, which can be seen in the tie dye pattern. We called this synthesis Live-Dyes©. Together we created the first Live-Dye; using a permanent marker my friend drew an exquisite image of Josephine Baker on one of my tie-dyed tees. It turned out that Live-dyes were a perfect stepping stone for me. They encouraged me to draw and paint on my shirts and tapestries; and later they encouraged me to use the dyes as watercolor paints on paper and canvas. Continuing the Artist's Path After college my interest in painting continued to grow. I still made and sold tie dyes, but my real desire was to make and sell paintings. Yet I only had a couple of years of painting experience, so I practiced and practiced. And I continued to apply the lessons from nature and psychology to art. Plus, I got a job at an art gallery, which taught me about matting, framing and a variety of artists. During this time I was able to practice and grow in painting and art. But in addition to these things there are a couple of other influences that I should not neglect. In college, I was introduced to the spiritual teachings of Taoism and the Taoist wisdom book, Tao Te Ching. Then, after college, I pursued Taoism and enrolled in a Taoist martial art school to study T'ai Chi. During this time my martial art teacher introduced me not only to T'ai Chi, but to Bible-study. Granted reading the Bible was the last thing I expected to do when I entered college. But after college I was open to consider what the Book said and once I began reading I realized that although I was raised Jewish, and knew some ancient stories, I had no idea what was really written in the Book. Plus, it was soon evident to me that there are priceless lessons within, similarly to the great lessons within nature, psychology and T'ai Chi. So, just as I had been applying lessons from nature and psychology to art, I naturally began doing the same with T'ai Chi and the Bible. Today the principles of Yin-Yang and Proportion (not too much, not too little) from T'ai Chi are vital to my art. Likewise, the power of belief and the efficacy of prayer, two Biblical concepts, are applicable to every part of my artistic process. So, I suppose by doing these I can say the Creator is my first and last art teacher!
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