World View

Artist: Peg Grady

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 48"x24"

Artist Bio:

I was born and raised in Queens, New York in an apartment building my partner Don insists looks like something out of the old Soviet Union. (It really wasn't all that bad.) The typical city kid, I travelled on the subways into Manhattan, went to the museums, hung out in Greenwich Village, dropped in and out of NYU and City University of NY, taking classes I wanted and skipping (and flunking) required courses. Being a hippie I expressed my artistic side by sewing colorful patches on my jeans, embroidering my shirts and thinking deep thoughts.

I left New York at the age of 25 and came to California to seek my fortune. I tried a number of jobs...I've been a secretary, written horoscopes, sold advertising, waited tables, written commercials, typed police reports and been a prison guard.

At 40, I dropped back into college and learned how to paint and make stuff. An artist friend advised me to "paint as if it was your last gig." And that's what I do...experimenting, testing out different ideas, gluing stuff together, scraping into paint, forming paper mache over found objects...messing about with metal, wood, fabrics, thread, playing with my materials, following whatever intrigues me at the moment. I'm inspired by Rauschenberg, by Kiki Smith, by outsider artists, by people who see the world as a fascinating place, putting bits and pieces of it into their art, following their thought processes wherever they lead, removing the filters and going for it. I'm happiest in my studio, music blasting as I glue and hammer and paint and make a huge mess, emerging with a masterpiece, a disaster or something between the two.