Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jim Gigurtsis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jim, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

From a young age, I have been fascinated with performing and visual arts. Back in 2004, I decided to start painting as a hobby. I started attending evening classes learning to use watercolors and oils.

At the beginning of my career, I attended classes on subjects from life painting to linocut printing to learn different skills. Quite quickly I realized that I enjoyed painting figurative work.

The classes were taught by excellent artists, but unfortunately, not all were good teachers. Instructions were not always clear, not student-tailored, and contained a lot of assumptions. This exacerbated my frustration with how to map what I observed onto the canvas.

I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process and I didn’t want to give up. I saw my frustration as a challenge rather than a barrier to try and work out how to achieve my goal. I started researching artists that I admire, visited museums to see their work, read books on their techniques, and practiced painting self-portraits using mirrors.

As a result of my research, I developed a process that allowed me to quickly capture the likeness of a subject. I also teach this process to other artists in workshops with great success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a multi-disciplinary artist. My preferred medium for painting is oil. However, I also employ video and installation to complement the viewer’s experience by engaging their auditory and tactical senses more fully.

I was born in Greece, grew up in London, UK, and moved to Florida in 2016. While I was living in London I painted mostly landscapes and waterscapes. The English countryside is very lush and the waterways lend themselves to painting, something that has inspired me and many artists over the years.

I then moved to self-portraits using a mirror rather than photographs and a friend asked me to do his portrait. Once that was completed I started getting commissions for portraits and have not stopped doing commissioned portraits since.

I have participated in solo and group exhibitions in London and Florida and have received numerous awards over the years. My artwork is internationally known and found in private and public collections.

In addition to art, my practice includes teaching art and supporting the arts in the community. I have taught and facilitated many workshops and courses over the years in London and Florida including at the Morean Arts Center in St Petersburg.

I support the arts in the community by giving free lessons to individuals and groups that cannot afford it; and by supporting worthwhile non-profit organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa and Suncoast Voices for Children. Suncoast Voices for Children, Provides for the unmet physical, psychological, educational, and social needs of abused, abandoned, and neglected children in Pinellas and Pasco Counties. Sometimes, the children just enjoy art as an outlet, a stress reliever.

Recently I have photographed the artwork of the children who are supported by Suncoast Voices for Children and set up a gallery of their work on my website for all to see. I am actively seeking opportunities where we can exhibit the artwork of the children for the community to see. Please get in touch if you are managing an exhibition space that we can use for such a worthy cause.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My journey began by being a proponent of realism. My work was freed when I realized that the artwork can never be the subject itself. For example, a painting of a bicycle can never be a bicycle, can’t ride it, etc.

As time went by I moved away from realism towards expressionism. Art-making is filled with challenges and anxieties. Making the first mark is a challenge, driven by the fear of failure. It gets easier the more you do, especially as you realize that art-making is about problem-solving, and learning how to fix something that doesn’t look right.

The challenge with art is to make the work relevant to the current times. I aim to capture the essence of the subject without creating an illustration or a copy. I paint my subjects from the inside out, giving form to sensations and vulnerabilities. I go beneath the surface, render what is hidden, and express my emotions and feelings to stir the viewer’s visual and visceral responses and provoke the viewers’ experiences and anxieties.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My inspiration comes from my surroundings, events, news, personal experiences, and travel. I rely on images from newspapers, magazines, and personal images. Working from images instead of models I allow my emotions, feelings, and memories to drive the composition.

In painting, the multiple layers of paint depict the multilayered themes behind the work and the subject. Accidental marks inspire and enhance the overall composition. Some are kept, some are destroyed.

My art is primarily figurative. I focus on existence, consciousness, and our relation to them. At times I critically view social, political, and cultural issues and how they impact the human condition. The work relates to themes of mortality, decay and regeneration, and loss and pain. Human existence, consciousness, and our relation to them intrigue me. I depict human existence at a moment in time where there is a contradiction between what is visually expected and my depiction of the essence of the person.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gigurtsis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimgigurtsis/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jim.gigurtsis.5/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqIW2Ds3dIgnNhe9Wtg3dmQ
• Other: email: [email protected]