INFINITE POSSIBILITIES Painting

“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is." - Jackson Pollock. Painting and drawing is a form of deep meditation for me. It is a portal through which a higher creativity flows through. I believe art is an invitation to higher consciousness. It quietly elevates the spirit by transcending the self and expanding awareness to an eternal sense of timeless presence. Its purpose is to express what words cannot. Similar to poetry, art bypasses the intellectual mind and touches that deeper part of us that we desperately long for. In short, art is nourishment for the soul. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1961, John VanBrouck has lived in Michigan his entire life. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe and the States, visiting countless art museums in every location that he has traveled to. His numerous sketchbooks are filled with hundreds of drawings from all the museums he has visited. Educated at Lawrence Technological University in architecture and design. For over 30 years, he has been an owner of a highly successful architectural design firm, VanBrouck & Associates, which exclusively focuses on creating high-end luxury residences. In addition to taking many art and design classes at LTU, he has had formal art training in figurative drawing at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although I continue to have a successful career in architecture, I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. Around eight years old, I remember checking out books from the library on Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci. I was fascinated with the detail of their line-work and shadowing, and would practice drawing their sketches for hours on end. I believe there is an intrinsic and intimate relationship between art and architecture, and this has given a depth and richness to my paintings and drawings. It has given structure and balance to the composition of pieces that have evolved through the synergy of art-architecture relationship. I believe my many years of experience in architecture has deepened my understanding and appreciation of art. It has enhanced my artistic skills and has expanded my perception of how I see light and shadow, scale and proportion, color and form. In turn, my art has given my architecture the gift of visual awareness, spatial representation, and abstract imagery.