I'd guess that at least half of the artists you see at art fairs have been working on their art since they were children. The
other half are people who have unearthed their talent later in their lives, whose life experiences have taken them a step at a time to their present situation, later discovering a passion for exploring their artistic abilities. Daryl Thetford's story is a long unwinding from mental health therapist, manager of a mental health center, which segued into book collecting, establishing one of the first online bookstores for used and rare books, until watching his wife's art career unfold gave him the taste to explore his own artistic nature. Since 2001 he has been exhibiting his photographs at art fairs. His long incubation allowed his imagery to emerge nearly full grown, as proven by his inclusion this year at almost every one of the nation's top art fairs, including Miami's Coconut Grove, Chicago's Old Town, Milwaukee's Lakefront, Des Moines Arts Festival, Denver's Cherry Creek, the St. Louis Art Fair and Houston's Bayou City. Daryl's photographs are straightforward captures of Americana, mostly from the rural South. His digital art is built on this base, layering additional photographs onto them and thereby transforming them into something complex, richly textured, and painterly. He says, "My influences include vintage matchbooks, posters, postcards, graffiti, and pop artists Rauschenberg, Johns and Warhol. My goal is not to present nostalgia, but to revisit existing artworks and then re-vision them into a wholly new and original form."
More about Daryl and his work.
Comments