Jack of Spades Painting

Hello my name is John Kuhenbeaker. I have been painting and drawing for close to thirty years. I was inspired to begin drawing and painting by the poster artist in the San Francisco area in the late sixties and the album cover artists of that same era of the sixties and seventies. I went to commercial art school after I graduated in 1980 and when I saw what commercial art was I turned my attention to illustration.After a number of setbacks and personal problems I graduated from art school and began my quest as a professional artist in 1987. It was soon after I realized that the studying of art was not over and really never is >I began to study the art of the Old masters and implemented their techniques using modern materials. After I was comfortable with what I learned from the old masters I began to combine different styles and techniques. I combined pop art ,graphics,tattoo, and mixed media techniques and whatever other styles of art I may encounter.My main objective is to best illustrate my idea and for me I believe that to best do this it is unwise to limit your approach to one specific style and genre but to use what best suits the need of the piece of work. In this way the artist almost takes a secondary role and just becomes the facilitator. My goal is to try and expand the medium. I am currently working on a series of paintings called "the Guitar Series" These paintings are paintings done on a piece of wood cut in the shape of a guitar and painted on both sides also implemented is a guitar strap and hardware.