Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Columbus.
Paul, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I have always been a creative person throughout my life, however, it was not until 2014 that I began to pursue it professionally. Painting became a focal point in my life in 2013. I began to use art as therapy. I was coping with the diagnosis of my father, Joe Columbus, with cancer. My father left his physical form on June 9th, 2015. I continue to paint in his honor, and pay tribute to him with my art and carry on his legacy to “Live with Love.”
While all of this happened, I met my girlfriend Jennifer Friendland who is an Abstract Expressionist Painter. We met in 2014 when I had first started to mess around with painting. She taught Art therapy classes and really was the first person who showed me how to let go and create. Meeting Jenny and our relationship became a focal point in driving both of us forward artistically.
We began to sell our work later that year at our first ever event “Artlando.” With some initial success that day it gave us the inspiration to keep moving forward. Jenny and I started to do art and wine walk nights all around the city and get our art out any way possible. We began to meet new people and become inspired more to further ourselves as artist and people. After my father passed away in June of 2015, we had some catastrophic life changes and we decided to further our career from the streets to the gallery. To date, we have both had several successful solo shows and regularly display our art throughout the central Florida area.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art to me is a therapeutic device first and foremost. Creating art is what I believe serves me as a persona and feeds my soul. I use mainly Acrylic, Markers, and Spray Paint. I have several bodies of work and styles that I like to play and transition and combine for different pieces. My signature series I have been focused on for the past three years are called Phantom Faces (#phantomfaces on social media). The Phantom Faces series evolved out of the love of cubism and surrealistic faces. I wanted to do my own twist on some of the art styles I was very often inspired by. It helped me to release the ego of exception, by using a one-line contour drawing method to start the work. After I have completed the initial outline of the face, I begin to add color texture and dimensions as I see or feel fit.
The message is freedom and Love with my artwork. But the ominous nature of the faces allows the audience to view them with there own interpretation. I hope the free loose nature of the faces inspires others with the vision of creating and letting go.
The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Get a side hustle thats a complementary good to being an artist. What I mean by that is get a job that allows you to do your art, inspires you to do your art, or pays for you to do your art. (i.e., Art Store, Hospitality(server/bartender), Art Teacher, Painting with a twist, Art Gallery job, etc.) basically, anything that allows you to do your art, and inspires you to do art when you are not at that job.
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?
I have an artist residence at the Orlando City Arts Gallery in Downtown Orlando, therefore my work is regularly displayed there, and I keep a constant rotation of new and developing work in the Gallery. I will have a solo show opening in the spotlight gallery on July Jenny and I have our work displayed inside the Waldorf Astoria Orlando Bonnet Creek property. I have a couple of phantom faces pieces inside the Aloft hotel in downtown Orlando. Jenny and I will have a small space inside of Market on South in our neighborhood, the Milk District at the end of this summer. We also regularly display our work around the Orlando area in various group shows and galleries.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paulcolumbusartwork.com
- Email: paulcolumbus@gmail.com
- Instagram: @paulcolumbus
- Facebook: facebook.com/paulcolumbus
- Twitter: twitter.com/paulcolumbus
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