John Curtis - Biography

 

Biography:

John grew up in rural southern Ohio loving to play in the creeks and rivers, trying to ride his grandfather’s Percheron work horses, and ride long distances on his bicycle. He joined the Air Force to get an education in electronics and maintained a large computer system on a remote mountain site that fed radar data into Norad during the Cold War. Working for Digital Equipment Corp. in Massachusetts as a technician and engineer, he was asked to go to Puerto Rico to aid a manufacturing startup and teach computer logic and software to technicians and engineers in the plants. He spent most weekends in the ocean or touring the island as well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Island life in the early 70’s was a fascinating learning experience, and you never knew who you would meet or see on the islands.

He moved to New Mexico to start a remote design engineering group that gave him the opportunity to experience the unique culture of the state and its all-encompassing art community.  He dipped his toe further into the art world here before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada where he brewed beer with some of his microbrewery friends, taught brewing and the science of brewing at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and was part of a group of artists teaching and playing in clay, watercolor, acrylic, and stone mediums.

John has artwork in private collections in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, and Nova Scotia, Canada. He has never showcased his art until he received the chance to exhibit at the Gallery With A Cause.

 

Artist Statement

Reflective of my desire to support the New Mexico Cancer Center in its mission…the pricing you see on this artwork goes in its entirety to the foundation. My simple thought: more affordable art should equate with more sales for the gallery, and more funding available for their work.

I was drawn to abstract painting because I wanted to create the intangible, invoke emotions, and ask myself and the viewer to think about what they are seeing. That is my selfish reasoning for painting as I do - from within or pushed along by a melody or song that forms an emotional picture in me. The lure of trying to capture a feeling, to be moved by a color or the spread of paint by a palette knife, brush, or something that was at hand was cemented in me when I first stood before those massive Jackson Pollock paintings in the Guggenheim.

Acrylic paint, gouache, and inks fit into my world and allow me to create. No limits exist and almost anything can be used when that fearless inner child opens the door for an unexpected journey. My paintings allow me to get lost in time while immersed in the canvas before me and to cast aside any questions or thoughts of how good or bad the work is. It just exists at that point. I can ignore what I want to ignore, not worry about what I don’t know, and be happy to explore. In the end I must reflect on what I did, whether I like it or not. Best case, it could be a captivating image that is added to the collection. At the worst, I cut it into fragments that serve as the spark for a new fractured series painting.