Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Goldman.
Ken, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
My Father grew up in Chicago and met my mom there. I was born in Highland Park and my brother in Evanston. We lived in Evanston as toddlers until the family moved to Southern California where Mom and Dad bought a flailing Dress Manufacturing business called Marjory Montgomery of California and brought it back to life.
Mom and Dad wanted us to eventually become artists so they sent us to a Waldorf School named Highland Hall (a European-based educational system geared towards encouraging the artistic side of children). This definitely nurtured our creative sides but frankly, at the cost of our mathematical sides. Nevertheless, out of this education, we both became artists and I developed a deep appreciation for art, art history, science, bird watching and bird painting. My brother also became a professional artist.
Then, in 1974, following a brief stint at San Diego State College where I majored in fine art and ornithology, like a dream come true, I was hired as an exhibits designer at the San Diego Natural History Museum on the basis of my bird and wildlife painting portfolio. There I learned how to fabricate models, build dioramas, paint background murals and do bird taxidermy.
After work each day, I kept practicing my fine art drawing and painting skills and in 1976, moved on from the museum to become a full-time fine artist showing at several galleries throughout the country including Hammer galleries in NYC. Also, in the 70’s, I started attending life drawing sketch groups (still do) and intensively studying human and comparative anatomy. Today, my paintings and drawings continue to reflect the deep appreciation of nature and the human figure that I gained during my formative years. Since retiring from the museum in ’76, I have been painting, teaching and selling art as a professional and never consider the idea of conventional employment.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Because I am very curious by nature, I paint any subject I find intriguing, unique and challenging. Usually these are figures, portraits, landscapes and imaginary historical themed semi-abstractions. In the Health Care and Public Art field, my artist wife Stephanie and I both design site specific artwork and murals geared to enhance hospital surroundings and contribute to overall patient well-being.
How can artists connect with other artists?
If an artist really has a desire to hone in on some form of artistic expression, be willing to make choices that keep one’s life simple and undistracted. Advice: Know and follow your own artistic passion, educate yourself diligently, admire but do not compare yourself to others, respect your own unique fingerprints; everything else will follow.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can see my work and contact me at www.goldmanfineart.com, https://www.californiawatercolor.com/collections/ken-goldman or take an Art class at the Athenaeum School of the Arts where I’ve been teaching for nearly thirty-three years.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3939 La Salle St
San Diego, CA 92110 - Website: www.goldmanfineart.com
- Phone: 619-223-3930
- Email: ken@goldmanfineart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldmanfineart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kengoldmanfineart/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/goldmanfineart
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/goldmanfineart/
Image Credit:
Ken Goldman
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