John Asaro

Bonnie Gangelhoff

	JOHN ASARO

Among the 20 legendary artists featured here, probably no one’s style has changed more than that of California-based painter John Asaro. Less than five years ago, the highly successful Asaro was painting romantic scenes of women and children basking in the sun. Today, Asaro focuses his creative eye on a time-honored genre in art history—the nude. He has shed his romanticism and now brings a more minimalist, edgy, and contemporary sensibility to this traditional subject matter. Female forms and faces are often set against brilliantly colored backgrounds. Earlier this year, at the California Art Club’s annual Gold Medal Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Asaro was recognized for his new direction, taking home the top prize for his expressionistic figurative painting PAVANE FOR A DEAD PRINCESS.    

Born: San Diego, CA, 1937.
Resides: Carlsbad, CA.
Proudest accomplishment: Supporting my family through my art, sending my kids through college, and basically doing the kind of art I enjoy doing.

	DANCE OF CHROMAS, OIL, 70 X 220

What would you have done differently in your life? Prior to the last three years, I’ve done beach and garden scenes of women and children and an occasional nude. I would have done only nude paintings as opposed to women and children. But since I was about 19, I have fallen in and out of severe and mild depressions. When that is the case, you have no confidence and lots of negative thoughts in your head. The negative thinking kept me from pursuing the nude paintings. What would people think? And would I be able to make a living? I went the conservative way of doing beach and garden scenes because they were much more saleable. Three years ago, talk therapy and medication knocked out all the depression completely. I’ve given up the former subject matter. In March I am doing a huge exhibition at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica in conjunction with the Chouinard School of Art. It’s a solo show with 60 paintings, all figurative.
Advice to young artists: I would say just pursue your dream. Do things that make you happy if you can afford to do it.  
Motto you have lived by over the years: Never be satisfied. Constantly improve. Don’t let things go by that you know you can make better.  
Biggest misconception about an artist’s life: That we are somehow different than other people. I put the trash out like everyone else.
Other interests: Music. I have music on all the time. I listen to jazz, Latin, and opera, and I dance around the studio.
Recent news: There’s a documentary in progress for PBS that will cover all my new paintings.

His next show is at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA, March 2009.