For 25 years Deron has created and exhibited his own art, inspired people of all ages and abilities to find their creative voice, managed/curated gallery spaces, and designed events that have given people opportunities to make art. In this video provides a tour of Deron's journey making art and teaching, then participate in a short art exercise designed to help you cultivate your creativity. (Made for the middle and high school students of Coronado, CA.)
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
My art career has been one of the most challenging and rewarding passions of my life. I pursued art from a very young age, and my intention has never wavered. For over 25 years, I have cultivated and exhibited my own art, inspired people of all ages and abilities to find their creative voice, managed/curated gallery spaces, and designed events that gave people opportunities to make art.
From a very young age, I was motivated to create and share my art. I remember winning second place in an art competition when I was 6 and knowing I had found my passion. I took art courses during the school year and art camps with Joe Nyiri at the San Diego Zoo in the summer. As a teen, my friends commissioned drawings from me, and I made my aspirations clear to my family. Thanks to my supportive parents, I was able to study at UCLA in 1990; I received my BFA in 1994.
At UCLA, my training was more traditional, focused on formulating an idea, making sketches, and then transforming those sketches into paintings on canvas. While I appreciated this classical foundation, my paintings sometimes felt forced. After finishing college, I decided to try a more intuitive approach.
My creative process has evolved significantly since that time. Today, I start by creating an unplanned composition of shapes. Those shapes transform into images, and those images begin to tell a story. I don't know the complete meaning of an image until I finish painting it. My paintings have an unmistakable authenticity and originality. They feel free and alive to me, and their meanings are open to interpretation.
While I appreciate creative freedom, I am always looking for ways to improve. In 1997, a colleague and I co-founded Paint Night Group, a loose “dis-organization” of artists. We started as two individuals committed to weekly art making and have grown into a network of nearly 30 artists with a desire for community, mutual support, and honest critique. Over the years, we have brought collaborative art projects to schools, festivals and gallery events in which hundreds of people have participated.
Through these associations, my own artwork has evolved. I have continued to explore new ways of applying paint and different oil media. I squirt, spray and splatter my canvases. My paintings are eruptions of organic chaos that I wrangle into form and image with my paintbrush. My themes always touch on the human condition and what it means to be alive. Through my own art and teaching others, I have come to understand that making art is a healing act. We can heal ourselves and others through creative self-expression. My most recent artwork touches on themes of inspiration and the healing act of creation.
I teach students of all ages and backgrounds, and attend professional learning workshops to hone and expand my teaching skills. In 2003, I began teaching adults how to express themselves creatively with paint at a small art studio in the North Park Arts District (San Diego). Since then, the demographics of my students have broadened considerably with regard to age and abilities. I work with students as young as pre-K and as old as 100; from the most wealthy neighborhoods to the most impoverished. I work with injured military personnel suffering from mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. I have a quadriplegic student who paints with his mouth. I work with people on the autism spectrum. I know that making art can't heal every wound, but I have definitely witnessed healing.
While my shows have been primarily in California, I have also exhibited in Texas, Washington and New York. Through the internet and social media like Facebook and Instagram, I have been able to reach a wider audience. I am still learning how to utilize these tools, and I hope to reach even more people in the future. I see myself as an ambassador for art and artistic expression. My greatest hope is that my work will inspire others to be creative. When people find their creativity, they can heal the world together in some small way.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I paint stories that I make up as I go along. Love, War, Peace, Spirit, Nature, Birth, Life, Death, the Mind and the Universe grapple with each other in a vivid explosion of color. Imagination runs wild and is made real in these images. Imagination is an infinite vessel filled with all our knowledge and everything else that will ever be. The images I create are designed to find a crack in your consciousness so they can seep into your mind and spark your imagination.
