Welcome!

"Kurt Waldo is an artist with dynamic energy and creativity: as a mixed-media artist, he layers and distresses the surfaces of his works with a frenetic style, resulting in richly textured, multifaceted surfaces that evoke the spirit of 1950's and 60's expressionism, all while maintaining his unique aesthetic. 

Kurt's unique style comes from his combined use of several different media  — oil, oil pastel, acrylic, colored pencil, crayon and house paint — and conventional and unconventional tools: brushes, sticks, pallet knives, scissors, and nails. However, Kurt's love of music is the key to his method – it enhances his personal sense of rhythm, which gives each of his pieces a unique cadence. His work also demonstrates his passion for landscape photography and architecture, yet you will see very few representational elements in his works. These pieces exist to enhance the space they occupy – he desires that viewers create their own sense of meaning from what they see.

Many designers have recognized his work as the perfect accent to include in 1950’s-1960’s post-modern homes. He has fulfilled commissions for many clients, both for private residences and professional office spaces, including two pieces created for the boardroom of the Theatrical Union of New York City. But his work also has a general, far-reaching appeal: it has been featured in the television series Gossip Girl and The Carrie Diaries, and his work was featured in a spread within the West Elm Furniture Catalog as well as at the San Luis Obispo Art Museum's "Brushstrokes" Show."

"People need analog art in a digital world"

Beginnings:

I like black. I remember being scolded in kindergarten for coloring a black house. I use allot of black these days!

When I was 8, I was caught drawing in the fresh stucco of one side of an entire house (guess it seemed like the right thing to do at the time!). Thus, the beginning of my love affair with texture.

I received my first set of "real" paints at ten and my interest continued on from there. 

I earned a BA in Printmaking / Painting from California State University, Chico, in 1977.

I then moved into commercial offset lithography and spent many years within the academic community; from running equipment and original graphic design to customer service and printing plant management.

I have now returned to my first love full force, recently dedicating myself to only concentrating on my art for an entire year.  ( please visit, Kurt Waldo The Year of Living Dangerously Project 6/1/14 to 6/1/15 on FaceBook) 

Style:

My style is not unlike the Abstract Expressionists of the 50s and 60s.

I see it as a kind of "frozen gesture", a frozen moment of time. 

It's the end result of a process of addition and subtraction; shapes shifting from one form to another, color moving and changing across the surface, texture and pattern, coming and going.

It's like I'm having a conversation with the paper I have before me. I add layers and layers to my work...each layer weaving in and out, back and forth, from one to  another.The trick is to know when to stop!

I went from making prints and paintings in the 70s, collages in the 80s, Graphic Design in the 90s and back to painting in the mid 2000s.

My Work:

My most recent work is a blend of the abstract with a hint of the real.

It's my attempt at creating a world with reference points which shift and change each time you see them. The observer then fills in the blanks with their own heads.

Recently, I took several trips along the West Coast which have greatly influenced my work. During the trips, I was continually hopping in and out of my car taking pictures.

Untitled, 1975, acrylic on canvas

 I want my work to reflect the amassing colors and textures of all that is around us.

I think we need and want texture around us to contrast with the digital screen.

I am using mixed media and am printing once again too, both of which are extremely exciting to me. 

Jimi, collagraph, 1974

Oil on board, 1974

The Winter of My Discontent, 2013 30 x 44, acrylic, oil pastel and colored pencil on paper