Today we’d like to introduce you to Geno Harris.
Hi Geno , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I began my creative journey as a visual artist in 2003 the year Downtown Detroit (where I lived) experienced a huge brown out. That experience showed me that people can be decent and kind and I thought that remembering that time through art was appropriate. I made that very suggestion to an artist friend living in the building but as luck would have it, I beat him to the punch and created a piece called, “Jambalaya, series of the melting pot”. I showed that piece to my artist friend and while doing so unbeknownst to me he was meeting the owner of Redd Apple Gallery that just moved into our building and the next thing you know I’m in my very first art exhibition and the rest is history. Subsequent to that first exhibition I found it increasingly necessary to bring artists together and pool resources and create opportunities that would prove beneficial to the furtherance of our chosen careers as artists.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The most prevalent obstacle I would say was/is perception and expectation. Declaring yourself an artist opens you up to a dynamic in the art community that I would have never thought existed. Coming onto the art scene as a self-taught artist proved challenging on two fronts, On the one hand degreed and award-winning artists seemed to operate from a place of superiority when they associated with emerging artists and especially self-taught artists and then there are the would be collectors who I found consistently undervalued the work that emerging and self-taught artists created because they did not attend school to learn techniques that were taught by other people.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a self-taught artist and curator. My work, classified as abstract expressionism is created with heavily dyed handmade paper called Lokta. Deeply influenced by rich color, I began to study and research what different colors mean on a cultural, physical and psychological level. I use these color rich papers to mimic texture in such a way to provide depth to an otherwise smooth surface. My work is often mistaken for a painted piece as I have learned through trial-and-error to blend in such a way that makes it look seamless. If I would say anything on what I am known for creatively it would be for the bold coloration of my work created with paper. I am most proud of my evolution as an artist; my humble beginnings saw me create work that was spontaneous and often reactionary but somehow along the way it evolved into a much more thoughtful process relying heavily on intuition. I have often likened my work to that of a mood stone because of what I have learned about the meaning of color and the subtle stories they tell in combination with each other. What sets me apart is that I’m in a small group of artists that use paper as their medium of choice.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
In my growth as an artist, I developed my talent for curating which lends itself to me supporting the emerging and self-taught artist community with various platforms to show their works and help them gain much needed experience.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onegsirrah/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geno.harris1/
