My inspiration in the arts was sparked at an early age by my grandfather. I started drawing at age one. Every time I visited with him, I would draw and as I progressed over the years of my youth, he would teach me perspective and positioning. Strangely enough, he was not an artist himself but knew enough about it to help me develop my skills. Through general art classes in elementary, middle, and high school I had experimented with many types of media. Watercolor is my favorite medium, but I have chosen acrylic as the media for my commercial endeavors. Acrylic paint dries fairly quickly, allows me to repaint as I work, and I find the colors to be extraordinarily vibrant; which fits the theme of my paintings rather well, I think.
In 1989 I was accepted at Butera School of Art in Boston, MA. There I developed my skills in painting and graduated the top of my class in 1992. Since then I have been working in the graphic and web design field. Although the majority of my work is done in the digital medium, I have done a good number of watercolor and acrylic paintings on a freelance basis.
I initially thought that I would use my skills during retirement for enjoyment, but on my 32nd birthday, I had the inspiration to paint the Salem Witch Museum. I live in Salem and I would pass by the building daily. The giant center window and the castle esque brick structure caught my eye. I also wanted a painting for my wall. I found enjoyment not only in the act of painting but the spontaneous chatter with the public as well. The style of my work had progressed as I went along. This can be seen while viewing my work. I started with my scenes in Salem. Contuing to distort the structures more and more as I went along. I always paint on location. The response to my work was so extraordinary, I decided to continue on with additional pieces and eventually try to have them displayed in a gallery.
The bulk of my paintings are cityscapes of some well-known areas in New England. I have come to use a style that I like to simply call "bent" in which I distort the contents of the painting. This is sort of like looking through a glass brick. It is a base of realism mixed with object distortion and sharp, eye-catching bright colors.
Rather then only sell my work in a gallery, I have created this site in order to sell directly to the general public. If you would like to commission me to paint something for you, feel free to use the contact button to send me an email. Please come by often and check out this website as I will continue on with my painting venture. There is much more to come. Perhaps you will discover me out there painting one day and I hope that you will stop by for a little chat. I would love to meet you!
About my signature:
Every artist needs to sign their work and in my latter years I started experimenting with signatures. My current signature actually came from my friends repeated bantering that has lead to the "York" signature. They would make jokes insisting that I sign my work with traditional juvenile names like, "Yorkie" or "The Yorkster". I said "No, artist are known by a single name, so it's just going to be YORK (period)" and it stuck.