Featured Artist Ed Glynn

Artist Ed Glynn uses vivid color and familiar forms in his digital abstract works. View more of his art by visiting his website.

 

 

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be an artist.

 

 

In grade school, we had art for a half-hour on Friday afternoons, taught by elderly nuns. Every year we did the same things—September leaves, October pumpkins, November turkeys—just seasonal images of the months. Not very creative. High school was worse. It didn’t even offer art. I spent most of my time in the detention room for drawing amateur cartoons of the faculty and students. I had no thoughts about college, so I did a tour in the Navy. Chasing submarines in the North Atlantic was not my idea of a career, so I didn’t re-enlist.

 

 

I worked for a couple of years, took evening college art courses, and started to see an improvement in my art. I made the jump and enrolled as a full-time student at an art college.

 

 

The first year was exciting, terrifying and stressful. I realized I didn’t know anything about art, art history or being creative. Once I got past the fear of feeling that all the other students were better than me and having my mind opened to new ideas, I enjoyed my educational experience. I enjoyed it so much, I ended up graduating from three different art colleges, all in different locations with excellent faculty and a dynamic student body.

 

 

Every three months it seemed, I found myself being influenced by a new art hero. Although I began as a very traditional landscape and still life artist, I found myself searching for a new direction to take my art.

 

 

I quit doing landscapes and still life and became a figurative painter. I continued painting figures for a period of time until I began to realize that the interior shapes and colors in my work became more critical to me than the actual subject.

 

 

When working with shapes and colors, their sizes and relationships to one another gave me the freedom I wanted. I spent years doing abstracts with no recognizable forms, but then still lifes began to reemerge in the works. First, just in fleeting glimpses; then, very identifiable shapes and forms soon appeared. Although they were familiar subjects, I chose what colors they would be. Color became the most important thing to me.

 

 

Today I make art just for the sake of making art.

 

 

I start with an idea, let it develop through trial and error, and wonder, “What if?” After a while, the work and I seem to have an unspoken dialogue. These are very private movements that I cannot put into words.

 

 

I believe in what the great artist Wassily Kandinsky once said, “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.”

 

Artist Ed Glynn invites you to follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Subscribe to our twice-monthly Updates, and get a free e-book on Where to Sell Art Online right now!