Friday, July 16, 2010

Friday Arts: Guess What? I Met a Great Artist in Tahoe

Let me attempt to create the illusion for you that my family is a yuppy, highly-refined, artistic bunch. Well one word out of three works...

We are artistic.

And so everytime we go to Tahoe we go visit a lovely little gallery at Stateline.

They happen to carry some amazing pieces and the gallery never seems to disappoint.

Enter John Mark Gleadow.

BRILLIANT!? Right! Books...books...and books. Look how flawless it looks! Like a photo. This is just one piece, he has dozens! (and a special one my sister-in-law and bro bought but that's their story to tell).

We were all intrigued by his work--the simplicity yet brilliance of it! (and by simple I DO NOT mean easy rather the simple beauty of how it juxtaposes fine art, story, and nostalgia).

So please check out his work www.johnmarkgleadow.com

He's a humble guy and while talking to him it slowly leaked out that what makes his work even more extraordinary is (ready for this?) he is colorblind.

Yea, you heard me right. He went to school for engineering and mid-education switched to fine art. (I am telling the back story here to set you up for my theory about his unique skill set). The way he is able to create accurate shades is by creating a grid on his pallet, thus perfecting where to go for what color. That said, I still think it's a modern day miracle! You'll see as you look at the vibrancy of color in his work.

So now I'm curious...if you could commission John Mark to do a painting for you what 7 books would you pick?

2 comments:

Michael said...

We already have ours. He painted it, just for us. Well at least that's what we'll tell people when it is hanging on our wall.

Anonymous said...

His art is really appealing and neat to view!