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The Artwork
presented in this online exhibition covers a span of approximately 30 years and is divided into four successive
stages of the artist's development as a painter.
Relative
Antiquities
John Granacki's
artistic roots are in Fantasy and Science Fiction illustration, and under the
right circumstances he could very well have pursued this as a profession.
Alas, other opportunities beckoned, thus allowing his style to develop freely
and unconstrained by formulas, deadlines and other commercial considerations.
Many of these earlier paintings have
literally hundreds of hours of labor invested in
the building of depth through the application of
hundreds of transparent and semi-opaque layers, techniques handed down from the
Old Masters who, working in slower-drying oils, sometimes took years to complete
their better works. Perhaps more than anything else, it is by this study and
emulation of the work of
other artists by which a fledgling artist grows, and it was largely through
these influences from other
artists — classical, modern and and contemporary alike — by which
John earned legitimate distinction as a "fine
artist" at a relatively early age, bearing the seemingly requisite laurels of poverty
patiently if not especially fondly.
 Bilbo
and the Trolls >>
Acrylic on
stretched canvas, 16" x 20", 1989
SOLD
<<
Starfighter
Mandala
Hexagonal, 26" sides (48" across), 1979
$2250
Lord
of the Nazgul >>
Oil on stretched
canvas, 18" x 24", 1978
$1150
Listen
Here / Blue Pine Period
Between 1995, when
John graduated with honors from Rogue Community with an Associate's Degree in
Computer Science and ending in early June of 2000, when he had full
custody of either one or two of his three children at almost any given time, and
was therefore more constrained by conventions of society and its standard
definitions of work — when he could get it. It was still a rough
and tumble economy before the Internet opened The Door, the best of times and
the worst of times, so to speak, and computer skills weren't in much demand in
Caveman Country. Despite the hustle and bustle of an alternating bourgeois
/ homeless lifestyle he still found occasional time to paint, frequently hosting
one man shows on First Friday Art Night in Grants Pass, usually at Listen Here
Music or the Blue Pine Brew Pub*, the two hottest art venues at that time, and
also at Bridge Books (the hottest art venue North of the tracks!)
He also enjoyed a well deserved 15 weeks or so of fame at The Falls, Southern
Oregon's original Rhythm & Blues club, the many outstanding features of which
included a huge chalkboard
upon which John performed sketchery on a nearly nightly basis.
It was during this period that he took up the
Master of Space and Time schtick,
hot on the heels of Captain Belchfire's Earthfall and subsequent literary debut in the 1995 edition of
Rogues' Gallery.
 Pollenation
>>
Oil on stretched
canvas, 16" x 20", 1999
SOLD
^ Shamanic Sojourn
Acrylic on stretched canvas w/ rhinestones, 24" x 12", 1998
SOLD
The
Blues Police >>
Acrylic on
stretched canvas,
Odd dimensions: 26" sides / 32" diameter, 1997
$850
*
John was also responsible for the largest of several murals which graced the
inner walls of the Blue Pine--the night & day forest scene with the wizard
standing in the center (below).
Intermission
You can't keep a
weird man down and that's a fact. From Early June of 2000 through late
January of 2002 Granacki made the best of a bad situation and seized the opportunity to become proficient in the usage
of colored pencils, and also learned to play guitar. Though unable to attend local arts events,
he was able to
send some of his colored pencil etchings via the mail, a selection of which was included on the First
Friday Art Walk itinerary of November 2000. This exhibit, "Escape from
the Prison Planet," remained on the Art Wall at the Blue Pine Brew
Pub until the hall's closure late in 2001.
Peace
House Era
Liberated after
nearly 20 months of political imprisonment, John Granacki returned to Grants
Pass where all the works in this section were painted sometime after his homecoming in January of 2002, ending about the time of the 2004
Oregon Primary. During this time he hosted a statewide convention for the Oregon Socialist Party,
led a county-wide Peace Movement, and—resigning from the
Socialists for reasons more practical than ideological—joined his local Democratic Central Committee, serving as the organization's
Secretary and founding coordinator of their annual potluck picnic, while
simultaneously spearheading the local Dennis Kucinich for President campaign, and
also building the local DCC a really terrific website!
The work from this
heated era flies in the face of wartime's
traditional despair, featuring bright and festive colors
offered liberally in hopeful
anticipation of "The Great Turning," while resonating strongly with the
influences of fellow Grants Pass expressionist Kurt Mottram and the more
apolitical James Peace.
 <
Smoke
Tree
Acrylic on
stretched canvas w/ rhinestones,
Odd dimensions
~ , 2002
$475
 The
End of the World >>
Acrylic on
stretched canvas with hematite, rhinestones & UV fluorescence
Odd dementia ~ 28" x 20", 2003
NFS
Recent
Endeavours
John Granacki
achieved romantic Enlightenment in the Spring of 2004 and wasn't seen a whole heck
of a lot of for quite sometime, as he and his paramour merrily feathered
their nest 15 miles out of town, way out beyond the edge of the forest between the mountain and the river.
Since that time the muse has been
treating him very, very well, and occasionally even inspiring him to
paint!
Concerned over having suffered a minor stroke in late 2006,
he's been eating a bit
healthier of late and has also begun work on his memoirs. He could keel
over tomorrow for all we know; you'd better acquire some of his art while it's still
cheap...
 The
Garden in a Forest >>
Oil on stretched
canvas, , 2005
$600
 <
Jetboat-Racers
Acrylic on stretched canvas, 24" x 18", 2007
SOLD
The
Birth of Venus >>
Acrylic on
stretched canvas, 20" x 16", 2007
$350
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