“I think with the process of painting there is something as simple as laughing when you hear something funny and it just comes out, or taking a breath when you need one. I just enjoy music so much when I have my tools, paintbrushes or crayon,
it inspires me to breathe.”
San Francisco’s Greg Kalamar is a live events fine artist who travels everywhere to create his unique paintings. Originally, from the Seattle area he has rapidly become one of the best known fine artists today. His work has become internationally recognized and he has been commissioned for reputable events worldwide. We caught up with him late tonight coming off an amazing weekend but still willing to talk with us even though sleep deprived and ready to crash. This is a portion of our late night conversation.
Crave: So tell me about where you grew up? How long have you lived in San Francisco?
GK: I grew up in Normandy Park, which is about fifteen minutes South of downtown Seattle. I moved to San Francisco in the fall of 2002 when I came down for some location work around the bay area for six weeks. I just fell in love with the area and decided I wanted to live here. I transferred and got my first residence here a year ago today actually.
Crave: I understand that your father was a musician, but was he also involved in art?
GK: He played accordion like nobody’s business and once in a while, he will fool around and bust out when the family is around. But my mother is a phenomenal fine artist, and painter, and numbers, I get that from my Mother as well, Math has always been really easy for me. She works as an account when she’s not drawing and painting or decorating. I have a very creative family I am very blessed. I also have two really talented older brothers. It’s in the blood.
Crave: How old were you when you first became interested
in Art?
GK: My mother turned me on to art, as my very first memories. I am the youngest of three brothers and she always had crafts and art for us to do. We would just play, dream, and create. I never let it go.
Crave: Did you take lessons or are you self-taught?
GK: As far as my education goes, I am a high school graduate. As far as acrylic painting, which I do now I am self taught.
Crave: What made you think of doing live event painting?
GK: In August of 1992, I became roommates with an amazing musician and bass player and one day we were invited to do a weekend on Orchis Island, and I went up and I had my sketchpad and he brought his 12-string guitar. We toured the Island and we went to different areas and I just started drawing scenery, and he would sit and play and people would just gravitate towards us, him playing and me drawing. Soon I was looking at the people and drawing the people into the picture and it just kind of blew up from there. That is the weekend I fully realized that this was it, I had been soul searching trying to become a fine artist and I realized that one weekend that this was what I could make work. I fell in love with it.
Crave: Is there anybody else that does this type of thing?
GK: Yes there is, Frenchy down in New Orleans, great stuff, and just huge heart, if you ever talk to him he just really appreciates life and art. He is a wonderful artist. And there is Keith Campbell or “Scramble Campbell” down in Orlando. He is just prolific like no ones business, he works and works. He really knows how to feel the music and translate it to canvas.
Crave: I think it’s fascinating, how you capture the essence of the crowd and the way a live show feels. You must be involved in music enough to really feel what you’re painting.
GK: I think that the process of painting there is something as simple as laughing when you hear something funny and it just comes out, or taking a breath when you need one. I just enjoy music so, so much when I have my tools, paintbrushes or crayon, it inspires me to breathe. And paint. And I couldn’t tell you from moment to moment the next stroke or the next color. What is going in my environment when I am working is translated and when I work, I could not do what I do on any particular piece without being there. The specific actions and events, for example a groupie that taps me on the shoulder and makes me turn around and change my thought and I go back to my palette and put blue down instead of red. Such a way that they are almost accidental in many ways. Like breathing, do you think about it when you take a breath? I don’t think about it, I have this process and these very simple rules, my space and a canvas and I look, turn, and take a look at the show, or the view and then I look back at the canvas and push pain until its time to look out again. It’s much like what a photographer does only my shutter speed is longer.
Crave: Do you have any major influences?
GK: I have many influences, the biggest in which is probably Layne Staley. He was an amazing songwriter and musician for the band Alice In Chains. I met him about a year after I started working and I met him at a party near Seattle. I was such a fan, but I approached him and told him I would love to paint Alice in Chains, and there was no hesitation, he reached in his back pocket, pulled out his tour dates, and asked me when I could be there. Then after a show, he showed me this beautiful guitar, Gibson’s latest model, and later on, he sent it to me. They said I could keep it if I played it on stage. We were just having so much fun.
Crave: Do you have any particular favorite style?
GK: My favorite style is the one you are familiar with. Live Event; I’m spoiled by real time. A rock and roll show, a corporate event, or somebody’s wedding. I need that action in front of me to create it. I could probably work on it forever, but I just have to get it a point where it tells a story and finish it.
Crave: What would you consider to be the best piece you have ever done?
GK: I have some favorites, and some best moments. I really tend to criticize my work, in my experiences, like that first Alice in Chains show that I did was so scary, in front of 10,000 people, and every brush stroke was so physical. I was hard on myself but they ended up hiring me to do more shows, but that first painting was very hard and I was very critical of it and it has ended up being my favorite.
Crave: Is it harder to keep yourself motivated when you’re doing scenery or weddings opposed to concerts?
GK: I feel so blessed that someone would want me to come and paint for them and pay me. Everything that I am commissioned for I feel grateful to be a part of. That just makes me melt. I thank my lucky stars. I consider myself honored. It’s capturing a moment in time. It inspires me to no end, to have that special occasion unfolding in front of me, and to capture it in color.
Crave: So what are you working on currently?
GK: Right now in my career, I’m focusing on technique, and color, and growing as an artist. An awareness of peripheral vision, I continuously practice that. We’re getting ready for a big function and there is a huge team of people going through my studio right now. I have been working with Randy Hansen, man I really love doing work with him. I do some charity here and there; I’ve been doing the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. Really, there is so much going on with my schedule, I just intend to keep working and doing what I do best, painting what I see.
