We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gregory Gove. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gregory below.

Alright, Gregory thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I love being an artist, and I’ve actually never really had, or wanted to have a “regular job”, yet I sometimes envy those that have a set schedule, and clearly defined tasks to complete that they can divorce their feelings from. As artists, we create things that we hope will resonate with an audience, and that can add a layer of personal attachment and emotion that can be burdensome, but the flip side of that is the freedom and joy that comes with the ability to earn a living creating.

Being a self employed artist can be challenging in terms of the discipline required in order to stay on task and keep focus, especially for someone like myself, who’s always struggled with ADD. I’m sometimes easily distracted, and my mind can wander. I sometimes get thrown off my schedule and have to make up that time later which can sometimes cut into evenings and weekends, It can also be somewhat challenging to set boundaries around my work., and it’s sometimes hard to walk away, or compartmentalize my work. I sometimes consider how nice it would be to shut it down at 5 o’clock every day, and between Friday afternoon and Monday morning.

I’ve experimented with making set schedules for myself, and it can be a great thing, but it can be challenging to stick with it. I ‘m getting better at it though. Never say never!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I began my career as a commercial commission artist and muralist in Chicago. I worked with architects, interior designers and art consultants to create paintings, graphics, murals and the occasional logo for any and every type of environment, or business.

I did work for many large corporations and national/international hotel chains hospitals, corporate office lobbies, you name it. I enjoyed the challenge of solving visual problems. and creating work that satisfied any particular client’s needs. I’d sit in meetings with client, architect, designer etc and help create the branding and interior and exterior look of a restaurant concept for instance. I’d never know what type of project was coming next, in terms of style or subject, but it would always involve a lot of discussions, rounds of sketches, and research in order to get to the heart of what would end up on the walls. I did a few public art projects as well, which was even more complicated as far as the amount of approvals, permissions and overall bureaucracy involved.
Executing these types of projects over the years got to be a grind, and I always had the itch, and the desire to simply do work that I wanted to do and build a market and an audience for it, but developing a style was no easy matter, as I was interested, and influenced by so many things…I had analysis paralysis, and many stops and starts along the way, but nothing cohesive ever took hold and gained traction.

In 2008 I was approached by an Ad agency in Denver who’s biggest client was MillerCoors. They were looking for an artist to execute a new marketing program they had created and were ready to launch. So, between 2008 and 2016, along with my best friend from college, I ran a program creating murals at festivals and large public events for Blue Moon Brewing Co. and MillerCoors. I was traveling constantly all throughout the US, and I loved it. Collectively we executed over 150 events during that span of time. When the program ended, I found myself at a crossroads. I had stepped away from my previous path, and allowed my regular business to sort of die on the vine while I focused on the traveling and the event life. With that, and after having also moved around quite a bit, I wasn’t sure anymore what or where my place was, professionally, or geographically for that matter, and I didn’t feel that the career road I’d been traveling had much left to offer me.

Then, after having a son while living on the Oregon Coast, and moving to Austin Texas, I knew I was going to have to retool, and rebrand in order to have another chapter as a visual artist.

After Covid, and a subsequent breakup, which turned my world completely upside down, I was heartbroken, and lost. Somehow I heard a little voice nudging me to recreate myself and start creating work what I wanted to create, and give it the serious commitment that it deserved. I went into the studio (a 2 car garage) and I got to work. What began to emerge were what I believe were sort of cathartic meditations on canvas, with the purpose of helping me process my broken heart and re-order my chaotic mind. At the same time, I suppose I was attempting to carve out a new career path with no clear roadmap, or way forward. All I knew was that I couldn’t stay idle. I had to get to work, and so I did.

I draw inspiration from many sources, among them, typography, graphic design, industrial design, the human form, fashion, landscape, religious iconography and architecture…basically anything and everything visual goes into my toolbox, and then I attempt to distill forms down to their most elemental and elegant, without any particular nod to narrative. I tend to think that loading your work with clear symbols or anything clearly recognizabe whether representational, or symbolically is an attempt to directly communicate or direct a viewer’s experience, which I have nothing against. I have and will use representational elements again, but at this point I’m interested in a sort of, visual meditation more than visual communication, if that makes any sense…my goal is to move viewers to experience something mystical, or spiritual without any specifically loaded imagery. I know it’s an impossible thing, to create imagery that is in no way derivative, and people always find things that are relatable to them, or suggestive of recognizable forms, but that’s not my intention with my current body of work. Usually as a painting is reaching a resolution of some sort, a concept will come to me, as if it’s communicating something back to me that has emerged throughout the process, and sometimes a word, or a sentence will appear, which often becomes the title. In some rarer cases I have a rough thought of a title in mind before I begin. Sometimes a shape will appear in my mind, and I’ll know that I need to do something with it, and I often discover the reason along the way.

I usually start paintings without a clear blueprint, or design in mind, beyond a general sense of a feel I’m looking for…then I simply begin, and I let each element I add inform the next and so forth, until they find a satisfactory conclusion of sorts. It’s a spiritual process that I like to say is every bit as important as the end product.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think the practice and the process is the reward. The opportunity to connect with, and have an audience for things that come from one’s own soul, experience and talent is an amazing gift. I realize there are a lot of creative people everywhere who for whatever reason find themselves living in doubt and disillusionment about what path to take, or whether or not to take the risk of putting themselves out there in front of people. It can be a scary proposition. This life isn’t for everyone. It’s a lot of hard work with many obstacles and challenges. It comes with more rejection than most people are willing to accept, but, for me personally, there’s nothing like the feeling of breaking through and connecting with my own work, and then realizing that other people are connecting with it as well.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

One thing that has always kind of bothered me is the misconception that many non-creatives have about artists, which is usually that what we do is simply a God given talent, that it comes easy, and that it’s not a serious pursuit…that it’s essentially a form of play in essence. Most any successful artist has likely spent years studying and/or practicing their craft or discipline. My own personal journey included not only serious study and practice in High School, but then attending a private Art & Design college, which was an extremely serious program and very grueling in terms of the work load, and the multi disciplined approach of that curriculum to cultivating well rounded creatives in all areas of art & design. There are many untrained artists out there that just start playing around with materials and it just kind of takes off for them, but those cases are rare, and it still carries with it a lot of self discipline, perseverance and hard work, so I’d love for non-creatives to understand that the career of an artist is usually every bit as serious a pursuit as any other, and with it comes a lot of struggle, sacrifice and determination, along with having a proclivity for it and a natural talent. Successful creatives know that it’s all about the doing, and you have to make your own luck.

As the great Chuck Close once said: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up, and get to work.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goveart.com
• Instagram: @gregorygove.art