Featured Site
& Artist Sharon George
JEF: May we have a biography?
SHARON
GEORGE: I started my career as a freelance illustrator in 1984, back in the
days when rubylith was cut daily. Ugh. From 1990 through 1993 I worked as the
assistant to the Creative Director in a prestigious San Diego Advertising firm,
where I was introduced to the joys of computer graphics. In 1997 I opened the
virtual doors of Gorgeous George Graphics, my own computer based design firm.
Since then until 2006, I have served clients creating logos, brochures,
illustrations, web sites, and more. I had to give it up recently because
my back is injured and I have chronic pain.
Mostly I
am self-taught. I have only had some courses in design, painting, and web
technology at local Community Colleges. I have never pushed to receive a
degree. I have always had to provide income and I've raised children and
grandchildren and never felt I was capable of adding school to the load.
JEF: Well, I think you’re a genius. Your vision & style are extraordinary & unique—and very beautiful. Can you share some clues as to how your art developed? For example, were you connected to the spiritual aspects from an early age or did it come as a "flash"?
SHARON GEORGE: When I was
very young I drew paper dolls, women in costumes when I was supposed to be
learning how to spell. I remember getting into trouble for that, and I regret I
let it affect me...but I was only 6 or 7. I quit drawing. Years later, a senior
in high school, I was in the library doing research for a paper and I stumbled
across a book of Salvador Dali
paintings. It lit me up like the White House Christmas Tree! Wow! THIS is what
ART IS! It fed my soul on a deep level, and I felt SO ALIVE! More than
anything, I wanted to paint like Salvador! The imagination of his art
stunned me; and the masterful rendering of people, things, clouds, water that
had a "skin" on it. It was all just so wonderful for
me.
But...I
was editor of our poetry and prose senior class publication, assistant to the
creative writing instructor...and everyone thought I was a writer, not an
artist. Once again, I bought into other people's edicts about my life. I let my
inspiration go and "settled" for browsing the Dali art book
whenever I could. At that time and for several years after, I wrote
short stories and poetry.
JEF: What medium do you like best?
SHARON GEORGE: One of my
dearest friends introduced me to opera. He's an artist and it's his favorite
medium of expression...but despite the colorful robes (better than any Penndel
Marker set I ever had) it just didn't do it for me. I bring that up because I
feel there are so many mediums for artists to work in. I LOVE movies! To me
it's fine art and literature rolled into one. I love period pieces,
exotic costuming and set design. Today, with CGI, there is so much
amazing animation.
I look for
messages about our humanity in movies and learn so much about our
nature, just like reading good literature. Needless to say I'm not talking
about the brains on the windshield genre, although that has its place as
entertainment too, just not for me.
JEF: Are there certain artists you admire & feel influenced you? Certain styles you have felt drawn to? I've always liked Dali & Chagall. One of the major I’m such a fan of Chagall is his penchant for including charming animal fantasy images in his work.
SHARON
GEORGE: I have a great admiration for Dali. I must confess I've never really
experienced Chagall. I know many, many people are moved by his work. I have an
affinity for fantasy art, surrealism, and symbolism. I love the painters
of 19th Century England, Godward, Alma Tadema, Lord Leighton, Waterhouse,
and especially Alphonse Mucha! They are kind of Pre-Raphaelite, but not really.
I LOVE the satins and fur throws and flower blossoms falling in the
sunlight, the women in silk robes sitting on marble benches by the sea. It's
just too sensuous and marvelous! Modern painters I love are H.R. Giger, a ground-breaking genius whose work is both
beautiful and horrific at once. Of course, Michael Parkes. Then there is
Rowena, Olivia, Brian Froud, and the dragon painter of Barcelona,
Ciruelo. I think Brom is incredible and I never miss a Spectrum book.
I get inspiration and learn from all these artists. The few non
representational artists I really enjoy are Greg Spalenka and Christofer Shy.
JEF: To get back to film (I’m a dedicated a movie buff too), I'm always interested in other people's favorites.
SHARON
GEORGE. Me too, I'm a HUGE movie monster. There are so many good movies to
discuss. I think Robert Redford has
enhanced our culture with many excellent movies: "Milagro Beanfield War,
Ordinary People, A River Runs Through It" to name a few. I love Robert Altman's: "Ready to Wear", and
"Short Strokes", and probably Ridley Scott is my favorite director with
"Alien, BladeRunner, and Gladiator". Chris Nolan did an incredible
"Batman Begins", followed by "The Prestige". And let's not
forget Spielberg's "AI" or "Schindler's List" and Ron
Howard with "Apollo 13, A Beautiful MInd" and my
favorite..."Cinderella Man". I think the movie that has moved me the
most in the last few years is "Children of Men" by Alphonso Cuaron. It is such a realistic
rendering of a future totally possible if we don't stop our cruelty and lack of
compassion for one another. On a lighter note, Baz Luhrman is another favorite of mine. I can
watch "Moulin Rouge" again and again...and "Billy Elliot"
wipes me out at the ending no matter how often I've seen
it.
JEF: I have to confess that I only “discovered” Nicole Kidman when I watched “The Others” and
thought she was great—and loved the movie. Then I couldn’t see enough of her.
She’s an amazing actress (feel the same about Jennifer Lopez, her work in “Selena” was
inspired.)
How about musical groups/musicians?
SHARON
GEORGE: I love Celtic music, World Beat, Trance, Ambient. Favorite Artists: Loreena McKinnett, Dead Can Dance,
SpaceCraft, The Orb, B Tribe, Terry Oldfield, Dean Everson, Greg Klamt, Deep
Forest. Sacred Spirit is
amazing Amerindian Trance music, so original. Long time love affair with Bob
Dylan. Dylan and Shakespeare said everything important.
JEF: I love Sacred Spirit too.
My favorite Dylan stanza: “Inside the museums infinity goes
up on trial/Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while/But
Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles.”
[Visions of Johanna from BLONDE ON BLONDE]
How long have you been doing the Internet thing?
SHARON GEORGE: I think I
designed my first www.gorgeousgeorge.com
around 1997. It was pretty lame. Giant buttons that changed colors and
depressed with a mouseover. Pretty ugly and NO style. Little by little I
improved. My recent www.fantasy-goddess-art.com
I think is adequate. It shows my art off and lets people order prints easily, I
hope. I know I need to revamp it, just for the sake of freshness. I will as I
find time. Right now I'm preparing to sell my prints and bookmarks, amulets,
etc at street fairs. I've been gathering stock and finishing an image that's
taken forever!
JEF: We went online about then too. The graphic on your Gorgeous George page
is exceptionally wonder-full.
Is there a person you look/looked to as a mentor?
SHARON GEORGE: I wish. People
with true mentors are very fortunate.
JEF: I agree. Do you have any words of advice to young people who may be contemplating a career in art?
SHARON GEORGE: It's
easier to cross the Pacific in a leaky dingy, I think, than to make a decent
living as an artist. That said, there's nothing you can do about it if you're
an artist, except grow into it and learn to express your greater self. It's a
calling. Personal growth is the point of it, I believe. And just
NEVER give up. Never give up on your dreams. Dreams are a gift from Spirit
and our salvation as human beings. If you give up, you'll only have to start
again from where you stopped because that's who you are and what your life is
about.
JEF: Any thoughts you'd like to share
about your thoughts about current events? Your worldview? Spirituality?
SHARON
GEORGE: Well, I'm having a lot of trouble feeling my spirituality through my
rage the more I learn about what's happening in America. We're on the
brink of being a full-fledged Fascist nation, replete with prison camps. It's
very frightening to me that most people DON'T know this, or believe it. They
are beguiled by the Corporate Media that is NOT telling us the truth
and is diverting our intelligence with tales of Paris Hilton and other
totally unimportant people and events. We're about to cross the Point of No
Return with Global Warming, which portends the destruction of our
civilization; and still we have Presidential candidates who believe Adam and
Eve rode dinosaurs to church, and whose main issue is passing judgment on other
people's sexuality. It's ludicrous. But more than that, it's incredibly
dangerous.
We have a
President and Vice President guilty of suborning the Constitution almost daily;
but we "can't" impeach them. There's no real leadership, no
courage.
JEF: Thank God! It’s nice to know
we’re more or less on the same page politically. I’ve gotten weary having to
tone it done for the sake of (albeit superficial) “harmony.”
Do you have any future plans, events, shows etc.?
SHARON
GEORGE: I hope to have time to create and paint a lot more now
that I've given up client work. I plan to promote my work to many retail
distributors, stores, and representatives. I have great hopes for the future.
And why not? Life IS what we believe it should be.
JEF: Thank
you VERY much, Sharon, for the interview AND The Great Work.
Updated 07/07