Artist bryan thompson's Profile

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Personal Information

• Name: bryan thompson
• Gender: Male
• Birthday: 27-Dec-1974 (Age: 35)
• Location: turku, Finland

Entries Written: 20 entries
Comments Written: 45 comments
Signup Date: June 1, 2007
Last Login: March 18, 2010

About Me
I am always interested in learning and expanding my knowlege and skills. I enjoy working with my hands and solving problems plus when I am interested in something, I tend to push hard for it. I spend much of my time painting and I am currently living in a foreign country. I have dreams and goals like most people and would like to see them accomplished in this life time of course.

Education
EDUCATION

1992-1997 Fine Arts and Industrial Technology(Architecture major), Delgado College,
USA.

WORK EXPERIENCE

1995—1996 Assistant to head Professor of the Ceramics Art Department and Teaching
Assistant for Cad in the Drafting Department, Delgado College, USA
1996 Blaine Kern Art Studio, Mardi Gras World, Louisiana, USA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1991 New Orleans Museum of Art, 'Celebrating Local Artists'; Louisiana
1995 Delgado College Public Exhibition ‘Visual art‘; New Orleans, Louisiana
1996 Delgado College Public Exhibition ‘Visual art‘; New Orleans, Louisiana
1997 Delgado College Public Exhibition ‘Visual art‘, New Orleans, Louisiana
2000 Brechtel Memorial Park Exhibition, New Orleans, Louisiana

“SOLO” EXHIBITIONS

2005 - 2006 Anita Kahvila, Turku, Finland
2005 - 2006 Port Arthur Bar, Turku, Finland
2006 Pikku Pub, Turku, Finland
2006 Turun Vari, Turku, Finland
2005 - 2007 Herman Restaurant , Turku, Finland(currently on display)
2006 - 2007 3 Beans coffee, Turku, Finland(currently on display)
2007 Delianna Gourmet House, Turku, Finland (currently on display)

COLLECTIONS

Go4Art gallery, Turku, Finland
Finarte gallery, Turku, Finland

Biography
I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. In my early youth, a New Orleans artist took me in and instructed me for a few years; leading me to study different techniques and mediums. Creating art has always been in my life, in one form or another. It's the only outlet that lets me express my feelings comfortably. It had been a turbulent time in my childhood and later youth. My parents were in a word ‘controlling' and had extremely high expectations laid upon me. In my youth, I worked on the side while attending school in order to buy my necessities and pursue personal projects. Time spent in school was awkward, co-existing in a place where murder and violence was common daily spectacle. I was interested in finding my own way in life and having no wish to follow the mainstream.

In my required schools, I enrolled in every available program and project for art studies and received excellent grades and merits. At the age of 16, some of my works where selected for exhibition in the Orleans Art Museum. Ending my required school education, I continued on in college for studies with architecture and visual arts. In the beginning, I moved towards ceramic art and sculpture and later revisiting painting once again. At the same time in college, I had been working fulltime during my academy studies to pay for my tuitions and necessities. After academy ending, I found work with engineering and architectural firms and proceeded to increase my expertise through the following years.

At the end of the year 2000, I met my future wife, Päivi. Hungering to see what is outside the U. S., I decided to leave New Orleans and move to Finland.

In the beginning, it was not an easy transition. The language barrier and gaining acceptance had been difficult. We lived on a farm in a small village in the north, Utajärvi. It's a very quite place with silent people and dark winters. Something, I have never seen or experienced before. Failing to acquire any job, I tried to keep myself busy with a number of projects to pass the time. This had become a dark period in start for a new life and family. I felt completely restricted and helpless. I spent years earning my name and profession back home and now I was all the way back to the beginning.

Three years had passed, and then I and my wife decided to take our two year old son and make a new start in Turku. She had become a make-up artists and I began a course study of the Finnish language. Following completion of my studies, I pushed forward in searching for jobs in my field with no success. Feeling as I hit a wall again, I elapsed into myself and began evaluating my place. I had become blind in my struggles; realizing art had been my happy place, my release, my church. Moving forward in my darkest hours painting had become my salvation, as relearning my life, towards a Finnish culture. This had become a good thing, with this came understanding and growth. During this growth period I found work in the ship yards, made good friends and contacts. Since then I have been very happy and proudly moving forward with my family. I spent everyday painting now and can not imagine a day without art in my life.

My Interests: (1)
art and music

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