Juan Thorp
JUAN THORP
ARTIST STATEMENT
The arts are like a meeting place for all members of a community regardless or race, ethnicity, income, career, age, etc. the arts bring people together in the form of galleries, or art centers. These places become centers for people to exchange ideas, enjoy art, make new friends, and to express their feelings in a public forum. Art in communites create Culture where it may not have existed otherwise.
I grew up in Pomona, I took art classes in school and after school classes at the Da Center for the arts in the Pomona Arts Colony. Through this program, called Art Link, I learned from professional artists and was even able to exhibit in my first gallery show, where I sold my first work. It was my first introduction to the art world and I was hooked. I continued studying art, eventually getting my BA in Fine Art from Cal Poly Pomona.
While I was in college, I held several art shows in the Pomona Arts Colony, exhibiting my work as well as other students and local artist from the Colony. I spent a lot of time in the arts colony, showing work, making murals, meeting new artists, and eventually opening an art galley with my wife Susie. At our gallery we hosted exhibitions for other artists in the community every month and helped promote and organize the 2nd Saturday Art Walk in Downtown Pomona.
I draw in isometric perspective which came from studying schematic drawings and drafting plans while working in a machine shop. My paintings are not exact forms, but rather a mood or an object that is “in-between” ideas, no quite solid but turning into something. It could be a robot or a building, but it’s made of patterned shapes influenced by machinery, geometry, patterns, color and more.
-Juan Thorp
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