Greg Craola Simkins







I haven’t always liked stretching canvas and never thought I would be doing it on a regular basis but these days, it has become more of an adventure than a chore. It is the sponge that soaks up all the thoughts going on in my head. Having an overactive imagination since a very young age, it has always made sense to me that any artwork I develop should be composed of these vivid thoughts. What used to take form in crayons and pencil, evolved into pen and ink drawings, spray painted murals and computer graphics, and has further morphed into the acrylic paintings I create these days.  My childhood obsessions with Disney cartoons, Lorne Greens’ New Wilderness and books such as Watership Down and The Phantom Tollbooth have become fodder for my work as it develops today.

http://www.imscared.com/

Jon Beinart





As a child Jon was lost in his imagination and preoccupied with the lives of ants, snails, spiders & mice. This fascination with small worlds continued through his life, often blocking out the larger world around him and this interest is apparent in his art. Drawing is Jon’s oldest outlet and is an obsession that is deeply rooted and has become fundamental to his well-being.

http://beinart.org/

Karl Persson








My intellect doesn’t come into play when I am channeling something subconsciously. There is plenty of time for interpretation after a painting is finished. Whenever I look at my finished paintings it is like analysing a dream – deciphering my personal symbolic language. Although there is obviously some calculated thought behind things like compositional aesthetics, I still try to keep these decisions relatively instinctive. I find this approach far more fulfilling than when I have injected some preconceived concept into an image, which has often consequently become either stale or too obvious

http://karlpersson.org/

Leonora Carrington






Carrington was born in Clayton Green, South Lancaster, Lancashire,[1] England. Her father was a wealthy industrialist, her mother was Irish[citation needed]. She also had an Irish nanny, Mary Cavanaugh, who told her Gaelic tales. Leonora had three brothers. Places she lived as a child included a house called Crooksey Hall. Educated by governesses, tutors and nuns, she was expelled from two schools for her rebellious behaviour until her family sent her to Florence where she attended Mrs. Penrose's Academy of Art. Her father was opposed to an artist's career for her, but her mother encouraged her. She returned to England and was presented at Court, but according to her, she brought a book to read by Aldous Huxley Eyeless in Gaza (1936), instead. In London she attended the Chelsea School of Art and joined the Academy of Amédée Ozenfant.

Brian Despain







From early on there really wasn’t any doubt that a career in art was the direction I was headed. I was hardly interested in anything else and a lion’s share of my childhood was spent with my head in the clouds, doodling a veritable army of dinosaurs, space ships, demons and imps. Even much of my later schooling was spent failing other useful but mundane subjects like chemistry, math and english while art was the one area that I excelled at. College was hardly different, I spent six years finding myself and taking a lot of classes before graduating with a BFA. Documented and dedicated to my chosen profession I set out to make my veritable mark on the world.



http://despainart.com/