Art of the Rogue
all the art Grants Pass can stand, and maybe just a little bit more...

In the weeks ahead this new website will be expanded to allow local artists to share
their work and their stories, and also to sell their art online, but until all of this is set into motion, take a look at some of our webmaster's paintings!

Featured Artist's Profile:

 John Granacki

oil and acrylic paintings rendered on canvas
with knife and brush, often en plein aire!

I've been a "professional" artist since age 5, when I began selling drawings of bunny rabbits to my Aunt MarilynMarilynMarilyn who was the first serious collector of my work.  Somewhere along the line I dropped the color crayons and moved on to painting, for many years focusing on illustrative fantasy and science fiction.  I still occasionally return to those themes, though typically with a more mythopoeic slant, but lately I've gotten more involved with regional landscapes, in a quicker and looser style which also makes the finished product more affordable.

My work has been the featured attraction of more than a dozen First Friday Art Night exhibits in Grants Pass beginning at Listen Here in 1995 when the art walk was in its infancy.  I'd previously had my work at Yellow Pages Books, the Dan Thompson Gallery, and Elegance Antiques. Along the way I seem to have become one of the  most widely imitated artists in southern Oregon, having painted the oldest [surviving] Grants Pass Door Mural (Medora Nankervis painted one first, but hers was painted over...) as well as our downtown's first Christmas murals.  Alas, mine were simply elaborate window paintings and they didn't have lights, but the one at Listen Here had a whole lot of BEARS (although none were on Harleys...)  Then there was that cute little "Peace House" shown at the Creative Alternative in Spring of 2004 — almost assuredly the seed for Imagination Village — and of course my alligator (left) had been in the window at Listen Here a looooong time before that thing between Evergreen Bank and the Crocodile Hunter germinated.  Anyhow, the "Brady Bunch" seem to have been inspired by my work, and that's kind of inspiring, but a word of caution: its best to be careful of following too closely where I lead.  Indeed, I am the only artist ever to have had work censored within Rogue Community College's Wiseman Gallery (for an otherwise remarkably well-received-by-most glimpse into the darkest space I've ever been (while still relatively capable of producing art, of course.) (There have been darker places...))

What the heck.  I suppose a little notoriety enhances an artists reputation, and with all of that notwithstanding I am (more often than not) a fondly-remembered honors graduate of RCC with not only an associate's degree in Computer Science, but also a deep understanding of chemistry and the calculus.  I've also attained not-insignificant standing among the local literati, both for my work on RCC's Rogue's Gallery literary magazine and as a co-founder  (along with Bill Doody and Tee Corrine) of the "Conspiracy of Poets," a weekly literary reading venue which Grants Pass endured for nearly a decade!  Anyhow, I still use many of the skills I learned and developed at and on the fringes of Rogue Community College, financing my wildly exuberant lifestyle with all the loot I rake in as a webmaster.  Of course most of my Internet domains don't make a dime, whereas the physical laws of the universe do require me to eat, thus I am always available for other gigs — especially for mural work when I can get it, my portfolio for which includes the largest of the old BLUE PINE BREW PUB murals; the cracked stucco, brick, and ivy Angel on the OLD TOWN ANTIQUE MALL's North wall; and don't forget the aforementioned door on the east wall of the Grants Pass Museum of Art building (Grants Pass Arts & Fair Trade's back door, behind Paul Hendershott's school of guitar.)  I also strum some rhythm guitar, do a few magic tricks, and I know a lot of really good jokes...

I hope you enjoy what you see here and that you'll like at least one of these enough to acquire it for your collection.  You can learn more about me at www.johngranacki.com, or at www.google.com/profiles/johngranacki

~John Granacki
  Grants Pass, Oregon

FLASH!  7/6/2010  Peace and I, having just last week signed the contracts at "Gallery One" (downstairs from and operated under the auspices of the Grants Pass Museum of Art), are now sharing a wall-unit on which we are individually showing our respective works.  Of course this means we each have half as much space (or even less...) than almost anyone else in the gallery, but we've got some pretty strong stuff — powerful art which illuminates the space (and the minds of all who behold it) with better than average efficiency! 

Anyhow, we're looking forward to an interesting and enjoyable experience showing our paintings alongside many of our region's most dynamic and influential creatives.  After all, this is Grants Pass, and this is where the Next Big Thing is already happening.

                 
               Night Paddlers, SOLD                        Moonlight Mojo, 9 x 12 acrylic | ^$75

Riverbanks Road, 30 x 15 acrylic | ^$500

Click on images of paintings to open windows with larger pictures
and further information

Fantasies & Delusions

       Bilbo & the Trolls, 16" x 20" | ^ebay                    Crystal Blue Persuasion, 22" x 28" | ^$550

 
The Woman on The Moon Created the Milky Way to Feed Her Cats

@ GALLERY ONE | ^$800