Editorial Cartoon
For as long as Joe Wood can remember, he used to yell at his younger brother, Nick, to go outside, instead of sitting on the floor, drawing pictures.
“I used to make fun of him growing up because Nick would be in his room painting and I’d want him to come out and play,” Joe said.
When they were growing up in Los Angeles, Nick and Joe were greatly influenced by graffiti artists. “What Nick’s painting is (is) beyond understanding if you see some of his stuff,” Joe said. “Art is about understanding all the drama and problems that are going through that person’s life and putting all of their problems and pushing it away on that paint brush.”
After the Wood family moved to Mt. Zion eight years ago, the brothers decided to become roommates.
“I used to live with Nick and he would be up at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning painting,” Joe said. “He was always into school, and me, I just did the dumb stuff.”
The senior 2-D major with a concentration in painting, had been currently focusing on painting and acrylic work. His work can be viewed at his solo show scheduled at 7:30 p.m. on April 26 at the Art Fart Gallery, 601 Monroe Ave.
“It’s that natural reaction that I can make through a connection by presenting something in a certain way,” he said. If I’m talking to you in English, we’re communicating. But art is a visual language, with visual symbols.”
Nick often works with various mediums to determine the message he is trying to communicate.
“You’ve heard the famous saying, ‘A pictures worth a 1,000 words.’ Well, that’s true in a sense,” he said. “But that one thought, or one word, or one expression or one idea that you have and paint, you can paint that in 1,000 different ways. There’s an endless amount of ideas. It’s about finding that visual language that speaks to you.”
Nick was surprised when Eastern President William Perry selected his painting titled, ‘Good Friend Bo,’ to hang in his office from March 31, 2008 until Nov. 10, 2008.
“I take any opportunity to enter any show,” he said. “I can be productive instead of just doing my assignments.”
Nick has entered two shows within the past year at the Art Fart Gallery.
“The most I’ve ever sold a painting for was $500. But I don’t do it for the money,” he said. “It’s like asking how long someone took to make something. Someone once asked a famous artist, ‘How long did it take you to paint that?’ And the artist replied, ’63 years. I’ve been practicing my whole life.'”
Liz Niemeyer, a senior 2-D studio art major, met Nick from a painting class they had together.
“What I’ve learned from Nick is to be open to any possibility to how I can do something,” she said. “He’s a lot of fun. He’s very open-minded, artistically. I can always pick out something and be like, ‘That’s Nick’s.’ Anything he does, you can tell, because it probably has some kind of messed up color or distorted image, and lots of layers.”
It would be beneficial for people to go to his show because it will be unlike anything else they have ever seen, Niemeyer said.
“He just has some really cool stuff. But you have to kind of see below the surface and look into it or kind of know him to understand what he’s talking about or where he’s coming from,” she said.Click here to enlarge
