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Biography: Sebastian was born in Cincinnati Ohio and raised just north of Seattle Washington. He started drawing at a very early age, driven by his love of comic books, Pacific Northwest Native American Art and myths and American artists like Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase and John Singer Sargent. Sebastian pursued drawing and painting throughout high school and continued on into college. Curtailing plans to complete a graphic design degree at Central Washington University, Sebastian eventually moved San Francisco to attend the Academy of Art College where he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor’s degree in Illustration. Sebastian eventually joined the digital revolution and began working in the bay area video game development scene. He has worked as a 3d modeler and texture painter, UI designer, concept artist and overall digital illustrator on many, many games, ranging from Star Trek to the Sims, Spore and even Guitar Hero. While studying Illustration Sebastian discovered his love of figurative drawing and painting from the live model, which he continues today, holding a weekly drawing session every Tuesday evening at his home studio in Oakland. Statement: Someone, somewhere, said that each artist must find their own subject matter. My subject matter is the human body, the landscape, animal skulls and the subtle relationships between figures in space. My main focus is painting the figure, exploring and reveling in the exciting and subtle details of musculature and skin tone. My figures reside in a nebulous space, out of the expected range of sight and perception, an environment of spirit and being. Often, instead of completing the models portraits I give them animal skulls, creating images that work as a springboard to even more imaginative speculation. What do they mean? Where are they? What relationship do these figures have to one another? What is going on between them? And eventually, "what's with the skulls? Are you into death, or something?” No, I am not, but I do find the shapes and forms of skulls to be infinitely interesting and beautiful and they add something provocative and fascinating to my paintings. They are literally images of death, true, but the skulls and bones are also the remaining physical evidence of our lasting impressions on this world after we are gone. Their symbolic presence serves to take my figures out of this world and to place them in a space where a whole new appreciation can be given to the human form, one removed from many, but probably not all, of our crazy preconceived notions of body, nudity, sex, relationships and humanity in general.
Since college Sebastian has continued to paint and draw from the live model, holding weekly figure study sessions in his Oakland Studio since 1996. He has also begun to paint landscapes. Sebastian has also been working as an artist and Illustrator for computer gaming and multimedia companies since 1994.
Sebastian has had several exhibitions starting in the early 1990's and has Participated in Open Studios in both San Francisco and Oakland: ~Past Shows~Sub Mission Art Space 2010 - Group show Periscope Cellars: 2010/ Sci Fi - Group Show Bay Area Models Guild: Worth Ryder Gallery, Cal Berkeley, 2004 - Group show Cafe Abo: San Francisco - Solo show Base Art Gallery - Group show (Figurative) Somar Gallery: Group show sponsored by Bay Area Models Guild SF, CA 2000Gallery 101: San Francisco CA 2000 Open studios: San Francisco - Hunter Point 1998 Open Studios: Oakland - home Studio 1997 Open studios: San Francisco - Home Studio 1992 Vesuvio's cafe: North beach 1991 Tart to Tart: Irving st. 1991 The Metro Hotel & Cafe': Divisadero st. 1990
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