GERALD ADDISON PIERCE
At the early age of nine I received top state honors in my first and only art show. However, as with many youngsters, this talent was left to wither and to lie dormant for the next 46 years. There had been other hints of artistic talent over the years as I pursued a music career as a professional drummer. This career ended when I began my nuclear research career shortly after graduating from college with my engineering degree. For many years my creativity was focused in the research field where I pursued the mysteries of the atom, I look back now and understand that research was my creative outlet. The looking for the unknown and trying to understand it was exhilarating and this pursuit released unrealized creativity. Through my art, this creativity has emerged with this same intensity and thirst for the unknown. I use my middle name ADDISON which is after my grandfather that I never knew. The loss of not knowing my grandfather appears in much of my work especially in my life drawings, portraits and self-portraits where there seems to be some unknown force directing my hands as the images appear.
In 1994 after spending 35 years in research and the corporate world dealing with analytical people and issues as well as the creativity side of that environment" I retired. It was at this time that I began my first art training through the University of California. To my excitement, I discovered the art world. I attended a class called "Art For People Who Can't Draw A Line". One of my first assignments was to find a photograph and draw it. I choose a photograph by Margaret Bourke-White titled "Death's Tentative Mark". The result is my work titled "Margaret's Lady". While doing this work, I discovered all the things that made me the artist I am. The emotion of this piece is extraordinary and brings out the mystery and beauty I feel. The overwhelming reaction to this work by me and all others began my journey in art. The rest is history!
I found a piece of me that no one had ever recognized including myself. My art began to take on a life of it's own. I felt I was not in control as I experimented with different forms of art. What I did feel was a rush of beauty, mystery and emotion. My work seemed to explode from within me. It just happens! It is where the real and the unreal, the past and the present seem to meet as time has no dimension. As I work, it seems that the white of the paper or canvas is being erased and images appear. With clay and stone as with the brush and palette knife, my hands seem to be controlled by an internal emotion not totally understood. As in research, it is this mystery I am trying to capture.
My rapid transition into art threw me into a new world. However, leaving the analytical world did not erase my analytical abilities. Much of my work with realism displays a very distinct analytical and detailed style which draws from my own feelings for the subject at the moment I first see it. In addition my experience in research where I continually looked for the unknown has emerged in my art as I take the subject to an emotional level that portrays the mystery I feel. When I look at a subject, the composition and design required to expose its beauty and mystery are apparent to me. It is at this time that I feel I have no control of my work but that it has control of me. Welcome to my tiger!
All my life has been like grabbing a tiger by the tail. You don't know where it may take you or what excitement may lie ahead, but you don't want to miss the ride. Well, this is an invitation to all my current and future collectors. Grab this tiger by the tail and take a ride with me and see the beauty, mystery and emotion of the moment through my art.
Copyright 06/08/98 530 Kelmore St., Moss Beach, Ca.