When you look at Jerry Hardesty’s painting, your eyes have to buckle down to work!

There are the dripping ones: impenetrable dark forests with dense curtains of thin milky drippings. Looking at it feels like going through a thick cool rain of paint, prepare to get wet!

Then there are the yellow-red burning surfaces, with giant fingerprints. They evoke heat and light and a boiling movement, the cracking crust of the earth’s heart. Prepare to get burned!

 

Diminuendo to Tears

 

Maps of fresh green northern and of hot equatorial continents, surrounded by cool lavender and blue-black waters. A cold blue ocean, agitated, makes me think of standing on the foredeck of a huge ship, staring into the icy waters.

There is a lot happening in Jerry’s paintings, and they invite you to discover a plethora of shapes and structures suggesting landscapes with grottos, animals, skies, or just to dive into the visual dream of the painter. Jerry’s art gives you the freedom of choice.

 

Debacle

 

When did you become an artist?

I believe I’ve always been an artist of sorts. I showed an early interest in drawing and finally started painting in my early thirties. Unfortunately, I gave it up to support my family until 2006 when I considered myself full-time. I have to add, however, that at first I had a difficult time saying “I’m an artist.” Now, it rolls off my tongue very easily.

 

Kwiktaim

 

Is your art your full-time career?

I practice painting daily, and I welcome purchases. Does that make it full-time? I say it does. I am obsessed with painting and improving my work.

 

Mosaic

 

The art world places a great amount of emphasis on an artist’s statement. Will you please put into words your statement?

Marc Chagall said it best, “Art seems to me to be a state of soul more than anything else.” That quotes resonates with me. With paint and canvas, I express my most personal reflections and sensitivities. I paint my soul with all its shadows!

I want viewers to engage with the subtleties and depth of the painting, and to perhaps even recount their own shadows. I am engaged when removing paint and texture by scraping and sanding, after which I repaint and create additional intriguing depths and textures. Each layer is a response to the previous one.

I want viewers to have their own experience with the painting; therefore, I choose an ambiguous title that may or may not relate to the original idea. 

 

Piksa

 

If you were not a painter, what would you do?

You mean I have to choose just one? I am a Gemini. Wherever I go and whatever I do, there’s a crowd of me’s tagging along. One is a critic, one validates me, another lives in a fantasy “lalaland” and pretends to be someone else. There’s the novelist… I have actually written 150 pages of a novel that very few will ever read. How about a high school English teacher? A full-time professional student… I love to learn. Wait I always hated school! Furthermore, tuition is too high. A motivational speaker… I love to speak in public. I just need attention. Oh, you want me to settle on just one. I would want to be a singer.

I began singing at a very early age, four or five I believe. Mom was somewhat of a stage mother. She pushed me to sing and my sister to play piano and twirl the baton. I performed at numerous talent contests, club meetings, weddings, funerals, and church services and events. When in the eighth grade, I took voice lessons from a nun, followed by lessons at the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City, Missouri. In college, I majored in vocal performance and graduated with a Bachelor Arts degree. I always had aspirations of becoming the next “voice” on Broadway. Now, I watch the new hit show “The Voice” from my armchair and lament that I was born too soon.

And now, painting is my fourth career. I taught vocal and instrumental music right out of college. I became disillusioned with the public school system, and worked for a music publisher a short time. My third career was with corporate America and I worked my way up to a management position. In 2006, I suffered and survived two strokes and two heart attacks, all in the same week. This forced me onto disability. I then suffered depression and my youngest son encouraged me to return to painting. 

 

Overcast Aire

 

If you could live and work anywhere, where would that be?

I would be an international resident… three months in Europe, three in Asia, three in South America, three in Toronto, and three in various U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco. That would be heaven for me.

 

Confluence

 

Where do you work?  How long have you been there?

In 1994, I was transferred with my corporate job to Salt Lake City, Utah.  I’m still here. 

 

Abstrackt

 

Do you have favorite places you like to create?

Of course, my home studio… I enjoy the solitude that it provides as I work best alone. I play music, usually jazz. I prefer instrumental so I’m not distracted by vocals. I get into “the zone” and lose myself in the painting as I express myself. At times, I am responding to the music. Most of the time, music fills the silence that otherwise surrounds me. Occasionally, I do enjoy going to a coffee shop and drawing other patrons, without their knowledge of course. Sketching life appeals to me.

 

Flashbacks

 

What does a typical day look like?  Is there a typical day?

A typical day, is there such a thing for an artist? I suppose I try to follow a schedule. I work best of a morning; therefore, I go to the gym about 5:30 a.m., followed by breakfast and getting ready for the day. I prefer to be in the studio by 8:00 a.m. and paint until noon. Afternoons are more flexible.  I study with another local artist who comes to my studio for private lessons. I also do marketing and computer work in the afternoon.

 

Flare-Ups

 

What materials do you prefer?

Primarily, I use acrylic paints. I do also use house paints, enamels, charcoal, markers, spray paint, tempura, and oil and water-soluble pastels. I prefer to paint on panels which store more easily than gallery wraps. Once I sell a piece or prepare it for a show, I then cradle the panel with 1x2 poplar strips. Along with the acrylic paints, I use gels, plaster, Venetian plaster, modeling paste, and crackle paste.

 

Dissonance

 

Where/How are you inspired?

Hmmm!  To paraphrase a quote, if you wait for inspiration you will be waiting a long time.  Just get to work and do it.  When I’m not painting, I’m thinking about it.  That in itself is inspiration.  “Painting inspires painting.”  If another artist has not coined that phrase, then I claim it.  It’s how I work.  

 

Surfacing

 

Response 2

 

How do you know when your piece is done?

Irespond with each new layer to the previous layer. At some point, if I go any further, I realize I may ruin the painting. If I can stand back and view it and  be excited, I know I am finished. If I can also give it a title, I know I am finished. All those things have to come together.

 

Response

 

Response 3

 

Do you work on one or more pieces at a time?

I work on several pieces at the same time. Waiting for a painting to dry and doing nothing eats into painting time. I paint and may be unable to continue working a piece until it does dry. I then work on other pieces which may include research and establishing resources. I like to work on several different formats. Painting a series lends itself to working more than one piece at a time. I also enjoy painting multiple-panel pieces at the same time. I find I am more productive when working on several at the same time. I always have something in the drying stage to which I want  to add another layer.

 

Flying too close to the sun

 

Alpha

 

Aside from painting, what are your favorite pastimes?

Reading would have to be my all-time favorite. I read anything from the morning paper to novels and biographies. I’ve always taught my children that if they enjoy reading, they’ll never be lonely. I also bike and I recently took up tennis… I’m not any good at it but I do enjoy it. Cooking is another favorite pastime. In the kitchen, I can be nearly as creative as in the studio.

 

Beta 12

 

How can our readers find and purchase your art?

My website is:  www.JerryHardestyStudio.com.

I also have several pieces listed with www.artfulhome.com.

 

Progressions

 

Tres Pinturas

 

 

 

Andrea Hupke de Palacio is the Arts Co-Editor for Wandering Educators. Born in 1957 in Giessen, Germany, Andrea began studying drawing and painting at an early age, encouraged by her family. She studied arts at one of the private Paris art schools, the Ecole Supérieur d’Art Françoise Conte and graduated as a textile Designer in 2005.  
 
For a short period, she discovered the Fashion and Interior Design World, with its précision, style and finesse which helped her to develop her love for the détail. Today she uses these skills to develop her painting. For her sketches and drawings, as well as her paintings she uses different media(s) on various materials, with liberty and intuition. Watercolor, Pencil, Gouache, Ink, Egg-Tempera, Acrylic on Paper, Canvas, or textiles.

Andrea’s paintings can be found in private collections througout Europe and she regularly organizes exhibitions and participate in art markets in Germany and France. She is also the co-founder of Atelier 325, together with Kim Rodeffer Funk, a Washington, DC-based artist.

 

 

 

All photos courtesy and copyright Jerry Hardesty