Baker Artist Portfolios

I have been an artist since I could hold a piece of chalk. I was formally trained in art at MICA where I received my undergrad degree in fine arts and education, and in organization and human systems analysis and development at American University where I received my Masters. These two threads form the fabric of my work, combining art/design thinking, with strategic community design to use my life to change the paradigm that governs human behavior and relationships. 

I see the artist’s responsibility as revealing our human experience, and offering a view of the possibility of things that do not yet exist. This requires the skill of observation that I, as an artist, was trained in, and that has developed through the practice of design-thinking. Through study of the structures that underly the way we experience reality, patterns emerge. The fundamental root of the systems that govern most western culture, is that we are independent beings competing for resources. This creates untold waste and missed opportunities for innovation. In order to be, we must see. We need examples of what could be if we understood the world could be different. Art is ultimately the process of bringing an idea from concept to manifestation. If we teach individuals the skills and principles necessary to build their capacity to move through the stages of art-making, this understanding can be applied to the creation of virtually anything.  Everything I do is about creating models of a new way of being in relationship to each other, and to the world which we share. I do this through more traditional forms of art-making including drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography. I also apply this through the creation of music, film, furniture, facilitation, and through my work in community, to evolve visual and experiential representations of  a world that works.

I created all of the work represented in this portfolio with the exception of the Kauffman Foundation EShip video of my keynote address at the EShip summit in 2017. I wrote and designed all of the publications, directed, created and performed the scores to all films, with the exception of the score to Grandmother Rose which was arranged by me, and written and performed for the film by former Baker awardee, Dariusz Skoraczewski. Shimishweni, also from the same film was written and performed by Gito Baloi, Dave Reynolds, and Chris Tokalon. Some of the photography of the youth work, and Cohado play was taken by others. All of the music was written by me. For further information about my background, visit PauloGregory.com.