Today we’d like to introduce you to Guy Sealey.
Hi Guy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Guy Sealey’s muse did not dance lightly into his life sprinkling beautifully-colored trails of artistic inspiration. Quite the opposite in fact. He found his passion and purpose while standing night guard in the South African army during Apartheid. Mandatory two-year service fighting for racial segregation under a corrupt government made him angry and hopeless — until he started creating. Those army creations may have looked like standard advertising posters but were actually veiled anti-apartheid messages contained within beautiful imagery. When his clueless commanding officers commissioned the work for their homes, he knew he’d found an outlet for his frustration and his ultimate path. Feeling the power of paintings as protest, his artistic vision was born: “it better f*cking move you and stand for something.”
Guy eventually made his way to Parsons School of Design in NYC, graduating with a BFA in Communication Design. He spent his early career in advertising where his desire for honest communications and inability to speak anything other than the truth in his work got him kicked out of more than a few meetings and one or two agencies. Advertising is still not the place where truth is celebrated. And so, he left. Or it left him. Doesn’t really matter.
At 45, he stopped. Pivoted. Had a midlife moment. A chance meeting at a bar led to a four-month butcher’s apprentice training in Red Hook, Brooklyn under Fleishers’ Craft Butcher’s master butcher, Jason Yang. After graduating, he worked in their retail shop as butcher and assistant manager of the Fleishers butchery in Westport, CT.
Butchering also gave him time and space to find his way back into his art studio (where he should have been all along.)
He then moved to Marfa, Texas where he produced sculptures using bone and sterling silver, and produced written meditations on paper. His sculptures and works on paper focus on the concepts of human consciousness or lack there of.
After a successful 3 years in a gallery in Marfa, Guy moved to San Diego where ehe has opened a new art studio.
After the 30-year, far-flung and no-way-to-plot-out path Guy has blazed, he truly believes that if you ask, the universe will conspire to help you. You just have to watch for the breadcrumbs she leaves for you.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been a smooth road. After being aged out of advertising jobs, finding a second career, and a third have been a challenge. Making a living as a full time artist is always challenge as well. . Finding the right gallery to represent me now is the new challenge, but I know that perseverance always pays off.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I make large scale written meditations. My hand written meditations are usually about 3ft x 5t, and are a word written anywhere from 4o,ooo times to as many as 150,000 times. I am most well known for these written meditation.
I do also make large sculptures out of bone with inlaid sterling silver words.
I am most proud of the fact that my works connect deeply with viewers. I have had people cry when seeing my work, a powerful testament to the power of what I do and have to say.
What sets me apart from others is my ability to observe humans and their foibles, and then illustrate that in an art form in a way that they connect deeply with and is utterly unique. I also, don’t think like other people, and am relentless in my pursuits. When people tell me I must be out of my mind for doing something, I dig deeper into that vein. I’m not afraid of change, and thrive on uncertainty, unlike most people.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
By how “happy” I feel on a day-to-day basis.
Pricing:
- Smallest works 5″x5″ start at $200
- Medium size pieces 40″x40″ start at $3,000.00
- Large pieces 5′ x 3′ start at $10,000.00
- Sculptures start at $500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.guysealey.com
- Instagram: @guy_sealey
- Other: www.guysealey.com
Image Credits
Guy Sealey
