Today we’d like to introduce you to Chad Creasy.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been making art my whole life. I will try to be as brief as possible. I was born in Atlanta. In the 1990’s, music was my passion. I sang and played guitar for several bands. I enjoyed drawing flyers and album covers to promote our music.
Also, I drew funny cartoons for my friends and my high school newspaper. Art was always my best subject in school. Eventually, I started taking private oil painting classes at night.
In 1993, I went to the Atlanta College of Art to major in painting. Back then, my paintings were nothing more than rock album covers on canvas. The other students were very critical of my work. I was not mature enough to accept the criticism as constructive. Eventually, I dropped out of college. I was unsure of what I wanted to do.
I spent the rest of the 1990’s working in bars and wasting time. This was a dark period in my life, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. I made some changes in my life, and I went back to Atlanta College of Art. This time I majored in Animation and Video production. I graduated in 2001 I didn’t paint again until I moved to New York, with my soon to be wife Jenny, that I met at ACA.
When we were in New York, I worked many internships as a graphic artist. On the side, I painted manikins and abstract designs. Nothing ever happened with this, and lack of money became a never-ending problem. Eventually, we gave up on New York and moved back to Atlanta. I could always find work in Atlanta.
I continued to mess around with abstract expressionism while working hard to develop a career as a graphic artist. In 2006, I was hired by a Government agency to be a full-time graphic artist. This eventually turned into a Senior Animator position. I still work at this company.
After my children were born, I didn’t paint very much. It wasn’t until four years ago that I became serious about painting. I was focusing on my guitar playing again. It was hard to practice without waking up the babies and eventually interrupting the homework. I had to switch to a quieter creative release, like painting. I transformed our garage into an art studio and began painting away. The first painting I posted on Instagram sold immediately. This was a sign.
After posting another painting on social media, I soon started to get commission requests. From 2016 to the present I have painted one commission after another. This is why my paintings are a mix of many different subjects. Most people wanted portraits, dogs, birds, and landscapes. I accidentally became a wildlife painter because of this chain of requests. Every painting I do now is an opportunity to try new techniques and ideas. My art is organically evolving its own unique style. In the future, I want to use all of my developed skills to create my creative series of edgy stuff.
Please tell us about your art.
I am primarily an oil painter. I use a mixture of wet on wet, pallet knife, and traditional layering techniques. I usually paint semi-realistic and detail oriented landscapes, animals, or portraits.
The reason I paint is simple. It brings me into the present moment. Along the way, I learned that being able to rest in the present moment brings true happiness. Buddhists focus on their breath during meditation to bring them into the present moment. I have learned that you can accomplish a similar effect by listening or playing music, reading or writing, drawing or painting, etc. All these things force our minds to focus on the present moment. I prefer to paint.
Most of my paintings were commissions. When I get to choose a subject, I enjoy painting open scenery, majestic mountains, twisting trees, and wildlife. My paintings express freedom. Not freedom as in political freedom. Freedom from bondage of self. I want the viewer to be drawn in and feel a sense of the same peacefulness that I had when I created it. The peacefulness of being in the present moment. If we are not centered in the present moment, we become a prisoner of our personal suffering.
When I paint animals or portraits, I like to focus on the eyes. I paint the pupils in a way that they follow the viewer around the room. It really pulls you in and creates an intimate connection between the art and the viewer.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I am fully aware that it’s a nutty world out there. Painting is my escape from that. I’m not trying to put myself on a soapbox or change the world. I just want to contribute what I do naturally and hopefully bring joy to people’s lives through art.
Before technology, painters were basically a way to document reality, tell a story. There were no cameras. They painted from life to express an idea. Today we still paint from life, but a lot of our inspiration comes from technology. I am not able to travel, so I use the internet as reference for my landscapes. I mix life reference with digital. It’s a lot easier to be an artist today. But you have to be careful to not turn into a copycat painter. I like to surround myself with several images and mix them up in my paintings.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can purchase reproductions of my paintings here: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/chad-creasy.html
People can request a commission by original paintings here: http://creasypaintings.wixsite.com/creasypaintings
People can find out about exhibits, and follow my work in progress at creasypaintings on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://creasypaintings.wixsite.com/creasypaintings
- Email: creasypaintings@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creasypaintings/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chad.creasy.5
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/creasypaintings?lang=en
- Other: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/chad-creasy.html
Image Credit:
Chad Creasy
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