Sal Brownfield ... A Meandering History

I was born in 1944 in Columbus , Ohio of English and Welsh ancestry.some of whom came to the United States in the early 1700s. Between my birth and fifth birthday, the existential dilemma became a topic of conversation, the nature of DNA was demonstrated, atomic energy became a political reality, the first Jaguar XK120 hit the market, and abstract expressionism entered the world. So I suppose it was no accident I was born coloring outside the lines.

I remember drawing at five or six and being fascinated with illustrations by Eulalie in The Bumper Book. There was a yellow sky in The Day the Circus Came to Town .a real eye opener. I sold my first painting at eight to my grandmother.a woman of impeccable taste who let me "help" her as she judged children's art for the Ohio State Fair. In third grade I was struck by works of Ivan Albright who seemed to me to "paint inside-outside" and with the color and use of paint byVan Gogh and Chiam Soutine.

I made art all through school.with the exception of a mis-adventure year in military school! I was also drawn to the theatre and moved to New York to pursue this interest. I acted and did set design at the Provincetown Playhouse and eventually joined The Bishop's Company, a traveling repertory theatre. One of the plays was the South African story, Cry the Beloved Country which we performed with an integrated cast in Atlanta , Georgia in the early 1960's.in spite of bomb threats. My sketch pad was never far away.

I returned to Columbus and attended Ohio State and Columbus Academy of Art and Design. In the following years, I was part of a number of businesses and other adventures, including a high-end furniture enterprise for which I was the art director and primary designer. I was a design engineer for the conversion of a baronial manor into a high tech conference center in England . I had a farm outside Cincinnati and I can still imagine the warm breath of cows waiting to be fed on the coldest winter mornings. I spent time in the Shenandoah Valley and eventually moved to Atlanta . I never stopped painting.

Since coming to Atlanta in the late 1980s I have focused almost exclusively on making art. At sixty my intention is that my work will have an impact on improving lives and our relationships with one another. This intention was likely formed in my twenties when I worked at a mental hospital and drew with the children .long before notions of art therapy, art as therapy, or art as healing were much talked about. While there I became aware of the stigma associated with illness and life circumstances. This came full circle in 2003 when I spent part of three months creating a 15' diptych with twenty 6-11 year old boys for their locked-down facility at a residential treatment hospital in Georgia . And so it seems natural that A Celebration of Healing , paintings of those whose lives have been touched by breast cancer, continues my journey into art and healing.

I have two grown children in Columbus , Ohio and three extraordinary, brilliant, and charming grandsons under the age of six. For me, a glorious evening includes great friends, interesting company, good food, sufficient wine, and laughter, much laughter. I am a happy man fishing the rivers and streams of Vermont or opening a new tube of the best titanium white.

Sal Brownfield 2004