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Recent Exhibitions (within Past Two Years)
Collegetown Cafe, Ithaca, NY
Delanne Gallery, Princeton, NJ
The Art Mission Gallery, Binghamton, NY
The Cyber Cafe, Binghamton, NY
Seattle Joe's Cafe, Boston, MA
Ongoing and successful auctions at the E-Bay online auction site.
Biography
I have terrible eyesight. This was not diagnosed until age seven. Until then I saw the world as colorful blurs. Since
I couldn't see well, any amount of reading gave me a headache that I never mentioned to my parents. They believed I simply didn't enjoy reading. My mother bought me comic books in the hope of encouraging my reading but it was the art that interested me. From my point of view it was color that told the stories. I began to draw my own "stories". As I grew up, got glasses, and learned the joy of head ache free reading my visual
stories became more complex. At the same time I was in school on a firm science track. It was not forced on me but as the middle-class, white, son of an engineer in small town New York the concept of becoming a professional artist wasn't something that occurred to one's school guidance counselor.
I went on from high school to attend the University of Binghamton in New York state, then SUNY Binghamton. However I
was bored with science courses with lectures that presented science as a series of already discovered facts and labs that rehashed work that was already fully understood.. I began concentrating heavily on my art work, settling solidly into painting. The professors I studied under were Angelo Ippolitto, the late Charles Eldred, and Don DeMeuro. I owe them a great deal, but I am not terribly social and have never been able to take the opportunity to thank
them. I graduated in 1990 with high honors and a degree in studio art concentrating in painting.
I went on to spend most of the 1990s in Boston, MA.. There I showed my work in any available setting. I have shown continuously in alternative spaces and small galleries for the past twelve years and my paintings have always been met with solid interest. In 1999 I had an exhibition with The Delanne Gallery in Princeton, New Jersey. My work there was
met with enthusiasm and I currently am searching for a gallery in the New York metropolitan area to further expand my exposure in the down-state area. I have been painting for almost two decades. This seems like a short time to me. I don't think I've really scratched the surface of what art can be yet.
For the past eight or nine years my wife, Robin, and I have lived in Boston. We left last year for the wilds of
upstate New York. Although there were some interesting aspects to life in that city I found it to be overly conservative. It is a town thoroughly lacking in imagination. I could go on for quite a while as to why we left but I won't. I'm sure you can figure it out from my paintngs. As for my work I paint in oil on canvas or paper for the most part. I was very influenced by illustrations as a child
and began my learning as an artist trying to copy illustrations from books and comic books at a very early age. I think the concept of the story has never left my work. Although I do not tell specific stories all of my figures are characters. There is a before and after to the moments I create in my paintings. I am a creative person. I do more than paint, although that is my primary creative outlet. I write, I am interested in
creating books of paintings coupled with writing. I do body painting on patient models. I want to do some short film making. I want to play with graphic story telling more. There is so much I want to do and I seem to be aging to fast for it all to happen.
I am an informal person. I have difficulty understanding the social rituals people go through with suits and ties and
talk about the weather. You will notice that I don't have much of a formal tone even though this is a site meant for business. This leads me to speak honestly and directly. If we have the pleasure of working together I expect you will learn to appreciate these qualities.
You will also notice that this site covers a broad area of creative interests. In my experience I've found that people
have a tough time understanding that creativity is something that one can apply in a variety of ways. An actor for example can play many parts and often writes screenplays yet so often they are typecast in a specific role. As a painter people seem to expect me to paint the same piece over and over again. I have heard the words "Why didn't you do more like this one?" often. The mission of the artist, and of people in general I think, is to
explore.
THURLOW@panormus.org
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