We were lucky to catch up with Sheldon Greenberg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sheldon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have always drawn, even as a kid. When in college working toward a degree in illustration it was suggested that i move to New York after i graduated to pursue my dreams of working with books , magazines and advertising agencies.

At the time my then girlfriend was asked to transfer from her job in San Francisco to Washington D.C.,so i went with her, being that it was that much closer to N.Y.C. I quickly began working for various ad agencies, magazines and the Washington Post newspaper.

After two and a half years in D,C. we moved to Manhattan, and i once again started working for ad agencies, book publishers and the New York Times newspaper. As time went by i began to realize that i wanted to paint more like the impressionist artists that i saw at the Metropolitan Museum, (i lived on 89th st. on the upper east side and would go look at art when i didn’t have any jobs) so i began to teach myself how to paint looser and with more brush strokes, at the time my style was very realistic.

I got hired for a job illustrating Julia Child and decided to employ my new found skill of a freer application of paint to the illustration. The art director hated it, and i never got another job from that agency again.

That was all the motivation I needed to move back to California after 13 years in New York and leave the bad weather and intensity of the city to go back to school to get my Master in Fine Art and paint for myself instead of for someone else telling me what to paint.

Once out of school I began showing my paintings in cafes, group shows, and anywhere else i could find to put them and finally getting into a few galleries to support me.

When my wife and I had our first child I felt I might need a more steady income to add to my one or two gallery shows a year, so I became a part time instructor at The Academy of Art, in San Francisco in the Fine Art dept.

Today I divide my time between teaching,( I am still teaching part time at the same college after 25 years where I have taught numerous subjects ), and showing in galleries as well as getting commissions for my works.

Sheldon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Over the years of being in the field of illustration problem solving design, color theory,and composition i have a strong knowledge about how to create a successful painting and can bring that into my teaching as well as my own works.

As an illustrator i loved taking someone else’s written word and transforming it into a visual product.

My passion is to create works that have meaning to me.My work has evolved over the years from realistic painting and
illustration for commercial work, to a loose, richly colored painterly
style combining figures, landscapes, and still life objects.

The paintings are most often represented in a moment of time, “before or after”. Based on male/female, nature/man-made interaction and giving the feeling that something is about to or has just happened.

As the work progressed over time, I wanted a less obvious visual representation, so I began finding ways to abstract my paintings. Using taping, scrapping, painting out and over the images, and incorporating tools not associated with painting, gathered from pop culture and my photo reference.

The concept of each frozen moment coming to life with form, line, shape, and color. Flat shapes versus detail and finished shapes versus the unresolved areas. Each giving context to the other.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When i moved from California to Washington D.C. with my then girl friend who had gotten a transfer, it was a cold winter night, we stayed in a small hotel away from the downtown area because our other lodgings weren’t available until two more days.
I had just gotten out of college with my degree in illustration and it hit me hard the next day that i was in a new place, knew no one and had no idea how to get my career off the ground.

Talk about PANIC! I began my day getting dressed in a suit and tie to make cold calls ( i needed to pretend to be professional) to ad agencies, design firms and the Washington Post newspaper.

I got an interview at the Post and dragged my portfolio over to their offices in the freezing cold dressed in my tweed jacket with a tie to show what was only at the time work i had done in school.

I was super nervous and left after showing the works to a few of the creatives feeling like it didn’t go well.

A few days later and more cold calling i got a call from the newspaper saying they wanted to hire me for a job to illustrate something for the paper. i was ecstatic and put my heart and soul into that illustration.
the next thing i know i am getting a job from them at least once a week and because of the exposure from the paper the calls started coming in from design groups and ad agencies.

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

To never give up on yourself even when you get negative feedback, always trust your artistic path and don’t let people sway your vision. Always work hard at your craft.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sheldongreenberg.com
• Instagram: @sheldon_greenberg