Artist of the day: December 2024

Friday, December 27, 2024

Artist of the Day, December 27, 2024: Gregory Hergert, an American illustrator (#2189)

Gregory Hergert (1952) was born in Corvallis, OR. At the age of 17, his family relocated to Madison, NJ where he studied and earned his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating, his career as an illustrator took him to Manhattan where the ability to illustrate stories on demand was forged based on the daily job deadlines he was under; a skill he still applies every day when making his art.

“I was very fortunate after graduation to have a neighbor who was a major illustrator... [he] mentored me and got me off to a great start as a successful illustrator, which was helped by the fact that I could take a short train ride into Manhattan, which was the center of the publishing industry at that time.”

Securing many notable jobs and awards in his early career, Gregory’s life took a turn when he took a break from his work in illustration to move to Pennsylvania taking on the role of full-time caregiver for his mother, as her health had started to deteriorate from Alzheimer's disease. This life altering experience began to implement changes in his creative thinking and over time Gregory began a gradual shift towards a career in fine arts which was perfectly timed with the growth of the Pop and Lowbrow art movements on the internet. He found inspiration in the ability to look online and instantly see all types and styles of art, this inspired him to create his own path in art over time.

After the passing of his mother, he met his wife Robin and moved to Portland, OR, where he secured an art studio in the then un-gentrified part of the inner city. Being directly in the heart of the day to day workings of gritty urban city life, this became an inspiration that eventually over time, slowly began to creep into the art he created. From that body of work and the positive feedback he received, he began to focus more on the movement of life in the city surrounding him and over time he founded the Urban Surrealism Art Movement.

“A city bus, a car horn, a drip of sweat as a rat scurries across the floor, hunched over the painting, the city, the imagination is Urban Surrealism.”

Currently, Gregory lives and works in the inner city of Portland, OR with his wife Robin and their cats. On most any given day, you will find him sitting in his art studio painting and drawing, where he finds inspiration in the day to day movements of the people and animals of the city that he sees below him as he looks out of his studio window and from the daily walks he takes throughout the city.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Gregory Hergert or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Gregory Hergert

Versace

Tik Tok Tweaker

The Peeper

Stop Hate

Stimpy

Starfish

Siren

S.W.A.T.

Reef

Really, Popeye?

Parlor

Oracle Clam

Old Crow (Regular Diner)

Must Scoob It

Metropolitan

Marie Therese

Leda

Invisible detail

Invisible

Horror Hotel

Higher Ground

Guardian of the Gate

Guardian of the Gate detail

Escaping the Farm

Cats in the Doghouse

Cast Off

Blue Tarp

Bad

Anarchy Marilyn

One Million Years, B.C.

My Man

Thursday, December 26, 2024

Artist of the Day, December 26, 2024: John Simmons, an American photographer (#2187)

John Simmons (1950) is a multi-talented artist whose work has spanned across decades. Born in Chicago and coming of age during the Civil Rights Era, Simmons' photography started at the peak of political and racial tension of the 1960s, mentored by a well known Chicago Civil Rights photographer, Bobby Sengstacke.

At age 15 Simmons began shooting photos for The Chicago Defender newspaper — the oldest Black-owned publication established in 1906. After leaving Chicago he studied fine art at Fisk University and completed a Master’s degree in cinematography at the University of Southern California. In 2004 he was inducted into the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) where he currently serves as the co-chair of the ASC Vision Committee. He is also on the Board of Governors of the Television Academy and champions increased diversity on-set.

In 2004, Simmons was inducted into the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and now serves as Vice President and as co-chair of the ASC Vision Committee. He is also on the Board of Governors of the Television Academy, working to increase diversity on-set, and taught at UCLA for 26 years before leaving to focus on his photography.

Simmons has also filmed music videos and commercials for artists such as Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and many more. As a filmmaker, Simmons has collaborated with industry giants such as Spike Lee and Debbie Allen, and has served as the Director of Photography for more than 25 television series. Simmons earned an Emmy for his work on Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.

Outside of the aforementioned exhibits, his photographs are also held at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Center for Creative Photography, the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, and Harvard University, where they exhibited in "Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin's America" at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. His work is also in the permanent collection of the ASC.

Through it all John Simmons has continued to carry a still camera everyday and his photographs are held in the collections of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Harvard Art Museums, Harvard University; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Center for Creative Photography at The University of Arizona; American Society of Cinematographers; and the David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland; Weasley and Missy Cochran Foundation, The Museum of Contemporary Photography of Chicago, IL.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by John Simmons or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only