Hi all,
I have only more recently found this site and have been accepted. So here I go...
My name is Jerry L. Berg, II. I am a painter (well actually working on it). My story is a little long winded but I have had a very round-about way of starting my career.
My background: I always had been drawing and painting from an early age. In high school, I had the great experience of being taken under the wing of my high school art teacher and he worked with me to teach me drawing, painting, print-making, etc...
On my way to college, I was led down the path of graphic design and did enjoy the computer and using digital techniques in the creative process. After earning my BFA in Graphic Design, I went on to achieve my MFA in Visual Communication with my concentration being in multimedia design.
With the web being still fairly new and very few good designers out there yet, during my MFA program, I as Fedex'd a plane ticket by a company called Studio Graphics. They flew me out there and hired me on the spot. So I flew back, finished my MFA a few months later and then moved my wife and I to San Francisco, Dec. '95.
Within a month, the President of Studio Graphics talked with me and he had a love of golf and I had a love of interactive cd-rom and web design, we co-founded a company called Golf Media. Golf Media was a design firm that focused on CD-ROM and Web development for golf resorts and clubs around the world. We had around 25 employees. About a year in we were purchased by a larger company.
I then moved on to co-founding another design firm called Spark Online. We designed and created interactive advertising for large companies. Again we were purchased and I then moved on.
I founded my own company in the beginning of 1998 and hired a few select individuals from my previous companies. We started creating highly creative and innovative interactive web sites and online advertising for many Fortune 500 companies. My clients include ABC, Buick, Chevy, Armor All, Chase Bank, Charles Schwab, and many many more.
Now for the painting part:
A couple of years ago I was working 7 days a week 20 hr days on my corporate projects. My wife suggested that I start drawing and painting again to get myself away from the computer. Well, I took her up on it. I started sitting in on Saturday figure drawing drop-in sessions and drop-in etching studios. I caught the bug!
So a few years ago my wife and I had our first child and I new that I had to make a major change in my life. I had wanted to teach for a long time and pass on my design knowledge. So I scaled down my company, accepted a job as a professor teaching web design and multimedia at Louisiana Tech University and moved my family from San Francisco to Ruston, LA. BIG change!
Teaching has afforded me a little time to really explore the one thing that I have always had a passion for - painting. (a really long story to say that I just started painting again after 20 years since being in high school.)
I have a studio on campus and when I am not teaching or working on client projects (yes I still own my company in SF), I paint.
I don't necessarily consider myself a portrait artist but really do enjoy painting portraits. I have also been painting still-lifes and am starting to work on religious paintings and narrative paintings as well.
After 12 years of someone else owning my domain name, jerryberg.com, I was finally able to purchase the domain name and create my own web site. I just launched it this morning.
I have just started working on my first "Official" portrait as well. I am trying to build up my portfolio to maybe get in a gallery and to start to market my portrait painting as well.
I paint on panel in oils. I usually paint in "grisaille" and then glaze my color over the under painting. This helps to separate the drawing from the color application. On my web site, there are a few "progressions" of paintings so that visitors can see my process.
Well, if you have read this far, congrats. I appreciate feedback, advise and comments that anyone might have.
Below are a few links to paintings that I have as zoomable images:
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Portrait - Brenda (my wife)
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Still-Life - Fall
Below are a few paintings:
Linear Mode
