Artist John Firesheets works in pastel, oil, acrylic, and watercolor to create images that reflect both his interests and the ideas of people who collect his work. His work is found in the collections of such jazz luminaries as Joe Lovano and Brazilian jazz artists Guinga, Romero Lubambo, and Luciana Souza. This completely self-taught artist has been commissioned to paint portraits, murals, CD covers, and editorial illustrations.
Regional writer John Stone says, “Firesheets burns his way to every telling feature and nuance of face and gesture in complex syncopation. This is authentic expressionist art, alchemical in its transmutation of sound and psyche into flat picture. There are other artists who can freely cross this frontier between sound and sight. What’s rare is a truly accomplished style that hovers with an exquisite balance in that midzone. The composition is taut, sprung, vigilant. It feels almost as if the image itself, by its brash but tender insistence, generated the skill with which it was given form. An image hard won, without compromise, imbued with a stringent passion of understanding.”
Inside Out by John Firesheets. Image courtesy of the artist.