Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nathan Gibbs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nathan, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I found it over the years one of the best ways for me at least, to keep creativity alive is change within my art, I have to consistently change styles and mediums every so often. First to challenge my intellect, second to challenge my skills and third to drive desire. We can not be creative without the desire to do so. I’ve always found it strange…the painters, who stick within one style their entire career for me that would be maddening. I would find run out of desire of redoing the same subject over and over. My collectors also drive my creativity. I’m always trying to strive to come up with the new style or tweak an old style so that when they come to another show or event they go, ‘wow I’ve never seen that before’ instead of, ‘oh he did one like that last time.’
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I was born in Washington State on the Kitsap Peninsula, and raised from 13 on, in North East Florida where I picked up surfing. Since 1999 I live and work on my art career in South Orange County. Nathan has created art work internationally in Fiji, Bora Bora, Moorea, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii and Australia and has shown work in over 6 countries. My work has exhibited in Florida, Washington, Oregon, New York, Hawaii, South America and California. I have collectors in over 20 counties. I’ve been in over 78 gallery exhibits and shows, and been featured in 29 web and print publications. I have created over 400 pieces of art, much of it environmentally based. Self taught, I’m influenced by Rothko, Pollock, Van Gough, Cezanne, and others. In addition I wrote and illustrated the acclaimed environmentally conscious story and art book, The Betrayal of Man. I was awarded the 2007 1st Annual Earth Day: “GAIA” Environmental Award for my efforts in providing philanthropic support to water related charities. To date my contributions through art to the Surfrider Foundation and Surf Aid international have raised over $34,000. In addition I’ve donated work to another 16 charities. Taking his paintings to a deeper level,
I aspire to invoke participation from the viewer with a visual, emotional, and cognitive experience.
My art revolves around, transcends and invokes a sense of wonder within an ocean-nurtured lifestyle. Through the exploration of water landscapes, peoples faces and rural images, I free the boundaries of their realistic attributes. I open the dream-like qualities of moments revisited, thoughts recognized, and landscapes explored.
There are many ways that I portray a subject, muted themes, political sarcasm, and disguised messages, developed through the application of painting, chemical, and textual techniques. Through the use of acrylic on panel I loosely apply the paint trying only to control the content, leaving the nature created waves of wood grain often exposed. The surf art, found object sculptures I create openly reinvent the energy of ocean waves and the way they move, form and break. I take an optimistic point of view trying to imagine surf everywhere and paying respect to the idea that wood gave us surfing.
Much of my work reveals the relationships between energy, water, life and emotion and how those create and destroy our natural world specifically the ocean. Using art to document the environmental struggles of the times, the works relay a message. Through surrealistic symbolism, Byzantine inspired iconography, and hidden images, I invoke participation from the viewer with a visual, emotional, and cognitive experience.
I’m currently working on my second book, a novel, redesigning my website, and exploring a new series of paintings that will reflect an entirely new direction in technique.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three skills that were most impactful in my journey were first perseverance. It is easy to get discouraged in art, especially if you’re trying to sell it. Thousands of eyes can look at one of your paintings, and none of them can have any interest, but then the right set comes along, and it’s the best thing they’ve ever seen in their life. Second, thick skin. There’s a lot of critics out there will tell your stuff stinks and there’s also a lot of people out there. Tell your stuff’s good, but you know they’re just saying that to be nice. You have to really not care and know that the work you’re producing matters to you, and when it matters to you, it’ll matter to others. Finally a willingness to change and adapt my style to keep it interesting for myself and exciting for my collectors.
One of my favorite quotes from Robert Henri helps those who struggle with their artistic journey. He writes ‘I have no sympathy with the belief that art is the restricted province of those who paint, sculpt, make music and verse. I hope we will come to an understanding that the material used is only incidental, that there is artist in every man; and that to him the possibility of development and of expression and the happiness of creation is as much a right and as much a duty to himself’.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Like I’ve alluded to ‘The Art Spirit’ by Robert Henri has been the most impactful book in my artistic life. Every artist should be required to read this book. Here are a few bites of wisdom:
A man must be master of himself and master of his word to achieve the full realization of himself as an artist.
There are people who buy pictures because they were difficult to do, and are done. Such pictures are often only a record of pain and dull perseverance. Great works of art should look as though they were made in joy. Real joy is a tremendous activity, dull drudgery is nothing to it.
…you will never find yourself unless you quit preconceiving what you will be when you have found yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: NathanGibbsArt.com
- Instagram: @NathanGibbsArt
- Twitter: @SurfArtist
- Youtube: @nate4surf
