Occhuzzie's featured artist this month, Josh Rush, shows artists where the term "starving artist" truly comes from. When we speak of our success as artists, we tend to talk of galleries in cities in which we have shown. We have photos of ourselves dressed up with people of high standards surrounding us and our art work. Josh shows us that there are other levels of success.
Josh is a festival artist, he shows us that the success of an artist is not always through who you know or where you've shown but how many people you effect with your art. Thousands of people visit these festivals and all with the same common goal, to buy a piece of artwork at an affordable price.
Josh walks to the beat of a different drum while connecting with the people of America. The cost of an original piece of Josh's work ranges from $195 to $1295 framed and ready to hang. He also sells prints of his work ranging from $25 to $75. For more on Josh Rush, visit his website located at the bottom of the page.
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Artist Statement:
I think that it is one of our primitive needs as a society to connect too, and as individuals relate ourselves too, nature. Our resistance to do just that is what I feel most compelled to comment on through my Artwork. It is a simple message, and expressed through simple means, but if I could give anybody something I would like to give them back their Nature. If I could find, for myself, anything through my Artwork, or in the process of creating Art, I would like to find balance with Nature.
Background:
I think that I fell in love with trees when I lived in Massachusetts. From the age of twelve I enjoyed the woods of New England, and when I moved to Savannah, Georgia it was the trees that lured me, not SCAD. During classes in the computer lab I got my training as a Traditional Animator. The only light at the end of that tunnel, however, was the computer monitor and a B.F.A. in Computer Art.
It took about six months to find a graphic design job in Florida, and about another six months to lose it. I quit and headed back to my trees, ending up on the coast in Maine, where I learned respect for the ocean. I didn't fall in love with the ocean until I surfed on the Pacific, and that wasn't for another five years.
My path has been very squiggly since then, after having been a gypsy for most of my adult life, I am finding that I may be a home-body at heart. I have followed my desires around this country and worked odd jobs all the while, lots of manual labor, as my creativity came and went even more frequently than I did. As a result, support for my Art has come from places that even I would least expect. People from all walks of life, where mine intersected with theirs, who I am honored to call my friends, have helped me every step of the way. As I look back at the Artwork that I created during those years I see an enduring expression of hope- in the form of trees.
Now, where ever I am, I can mix myself into the course of any given day, and carve into it an escape route to the nearest Natural setting. I am at peace painting, but I am in heaven when I get to paint outside, especially surrounded by Nature. I enjoy interacting with the public, with children most of all, as they are always eager to see what an Artist does behind their easel.
The more I go outside and paint, the better I feel. You know that feeling after you've spent hours at your easel painting, not really thinking, just painting? I feel that.
Highlights:
Apprenticeship at Chadwick Studios 2007
Carmel International Art Festival 2007
Sullivan Munce Art Festival 2007
Apprenticeship at Huasna Valley Farm 2006
Masterpiece In A Day 2005 Paradigm Discovery 2004
Teaching Animation at Lafayette Art Museum 2003
Apprenticeship at Twin Rocker Handmade Paper Co 2003
Masterpiece In A Day 2003 Allotropy Art Show 2003
Plan for 2008:
Well, I call it a plan. I am in the process of applying to as many Art Festivals in the U.S. as I can possibly afford, and painting as much as I possibly can.
Upcoming Events/ Shows:
Mount Dora Art Festival on February 2nd and 3rd, in Mount Dora, Florida
J&Co Art Festival, March 19th and 20th, in Jacksonville, Florida
View my Artwork at: www.Supershwa.com or
Myspace page
Contact: Josh@supershwa.com
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