Introduction
Testimonials |
About the
Artist
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Tony Max
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"Nothing great was ever created without passion."
– Mary Murphy
"Art is nothing without feeling. And with feeling, it communcates better than anything."
– Tony Bennett
Early years.
I was born legally blind in London, Ontario, Canada, having only ten percent
of normal vision. I was enthusiastic about art, writing and music at an
early age. My blindness was cured by cataract surgery as a teenager. As
a result of the surgeries I contracted glaucoma in 1989 and have had three
retinal detachments.
My vision is still impaired. I take eye drops twice a day and have frequent
checkups with my ophthalmologist.
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On a hike at Dolomite Pass, near the
Banff-Jasper Highway, Alberta.
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My art
Much of my art portrays the beauty of west coast, where I live, in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada.
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On the British Columbia coast, at Sechelt.
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It captures the beautiful and
vivid aspects of nature, emphasizing harmonious colors, patterns and dramatic
compositions.
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Tony Max
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International, leading artist
My art has been purchased by art lovers from at least 21 countries, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Australia, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Chile.
My prints and paintings been sold in over 130 Canadian art galleries and been represented by
five print distribution companies
I have been serving the Canadian fine art community for about 20 years.
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I'm demonstrating
a painting technique here while holding a paint brush.
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Education
I studied fine art for one year at Fanshawe College in my home city of
London, Ontario. Realizing that I would
be unfulfilled and unable to make a living by doing the kind of modern art that was encouraged there, I dropped out
of the art program at the college after the first year.
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In 1977,
soon before I became an art student.
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Journalism
I applied to the journalism programs at several colleges and universities
in Ontario, and was accepted at all of them.
I moved to Toronto and enrolled in the journalism program at Ryerson University,
which – along with Carleton – vied for the position of top journalism
school in Canada.
Only a small percentage of the applicants were accepted into the journalism
program at Ryerson. I believe that my applications were accepted by Ryerson
University and the colleges I applied to because I had an excellent portfolio
to show to the interviewer at the university. The portfolio was based on
the clippings I had gathered of the articles and photographs I had made
for the student newspaper during some of my spare time when I was a fine
art student at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.
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In 1997
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Intertwining of pursuits
During some of my spare time as a journalism student, I began painting
and silkscreening some of my fine art images. This intertwining of pursuits demonstrates my strong interests in both art and the written word.
Also when I was still a
journalism student, I had my first group show (in 1980) at the now defunct
Del Bello Gallery in Toronto, and (in 1981) my first solo show, also at
the Del Bello Gallery.
I earned a bachelor of applied arts degree in journalism from Ryerson
in 1981.
I became the managing editor and sole reporter and photographer at a chain
of monthly, community newspapers in Toronto, was a writer and photographer
for the employee magazines of two insurance companies, an editor for the
provincial government and had other, similar jobs.
Among my career jobs, I've worked as a journalist, editor, corporate communications officer, photographer, computer typesetter, desktop publisher, illustrator,
Web site creator, graphic artist, graphic designer and fine artist in
Toronto and Vancouver.
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For many years I was interested
in so many fields of endeavour I wrestled with the decision about which
one or ones to devote myself to, and I frequently vacillated among them for a number of years.
Self-employed business communicator
In 1996 I founded a company that helps businesses to communicate clearly
and effectively, through writing, editing, graphic design, photography
and illustration. In 2002, buoyed by the increasing popularity of my
fine art, I quit the company and passed control of it to my former common-law
wife.
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On Gabriola Island, B.C.
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Continuing education
Since my university years, I painted in some of my spare time and have
taken part-time courses at a variety of schools, including such diverse
courses as advertising layout at the Ontario College of Art and photography
at the Banff School of Fine Arts.
But I consider myself to be mostly self-taught, having learned by experimenting
on my own, reading books and magazines, investigating products at art
supply stores, and more recently, researching on the Internet.
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Art media
For several years my preferred medium was heavy-body acrylics. I've
also printed several serigraph (silkscreen) editions by hand. Additionally,
I've tried traditional oils, watercolors, gouache, pastels, pencils,
pencil crayons, markers, stone lithography, etching, mezzotint, woodcut,
airbrushing and fluid acrylics.
I now paint exclusively with water-mixable oil, because d, it gives the most
pleasing results, its longevity is long, its toxicity is low and the colors are bright.
I'm a member of the Federation of Canadian
Artists.
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In 2009. (Self portrait.)
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Advocate for rights
I advocate the rights of artists, art dealers, picture framers and art lovers to have sheclays respected as an art medium, believing that the media used by artists should not be an issue.
I am also an advocate for fine artists to:
• create their print editions in sizes of 500, 1,000 or more without being crucified for being greedy, unscrupulous and egotistical
* get fair licensing contracts from print publishers
* protect the copyright of their images
• use digital technology without bias from outside (such as original printmakers)
• try to make money from their art, so that artists have opportunities commensurate with the opportunities of workers in other creative fields, such as music, writing, acting and dance.
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Avante garde art and artist
i am an avante garde artist. I'm proud that I tend to "think outside the box" and "march to the beat of a different drummer".
My art is not the type of avante garde art that the governments' arts ministries are biased in favour of. In fact, my art is considered conservative, like Charles Frace's, Guy Coleleach's, Terry Isaacs's, and Carl Brenders's.
It's not experimental, abstract, weird, historical, feminist, aboriginal, or as famous as the art of artists such as Andy Warhola, Georgia O'Keefe or Frida Kahlo, so it's the type of art that the governments' arts ministries are biased against, and therefore it never qualifies for government grants.
However, I and my approach to my art are different from the run-of-mill artist in a number of ways, and much of that difference developed by being avante garde (experimental) through many years of life and working as an artist:
• My art has a fresh, unique look that's distinctive and immediately recognizable.
• I am a successful visual artist, even though I was born legally blind (with only ten percent of normal vision) and am still visually impaired.
• I have redefined the way that archival, limited edition art print editions are named and numbered. I have abandoned the traditional, archaic methods of having a main edition along with a small suite of identical prints of the same size (artist's proofs) because I discovered that that approach doesn't fit people's needs. Instead, I've adopted a system whereby prints are published in different sizes: small, medium, and for longer images, large, extra large and even extra, extra large). My new system fills the needs of the art print enthusiasts much better than the old one.
• I was the first fine artist in Canada to create, publish and sell a suite of original, large giclees that I painted from scratch using the Illustrator computer program. The suite of prints was exhibited by the head of the fine art department at the University of New Brunswick in 1995, to demonstrate to fine art students what was possible with digital technology. At the time, giclee printing was in its infancy. The art was commissioned by Surrey Metro Savings Credit Union.
• I was one of the first desktop publishers and digital fine artists in Canada, starting in 1987 with a 128K Mac (the predecessor of the Mac Plus).
• In 2000, I was one of the first professional artists in Canada to be commercially successful using water-mixable oil paints.
• I am one of the few Canadian artists whose art prints were sold door-to-door. It happened under the auspices of a print distribution company called Annex Art, which operated with a small team of salesmen in Ontario and the Canadian prairie provinces, selling limited edition, hand-pulled serigraphs by knocking on doors in the early 1980s.
• I was an early adapter to the Internet, solely editing, designing, photographing, publishing and coding a fine art site starting in 1996. My current Web site – always a work in progress – now receives about 60,000 'hits' per year.
• I have solely written, edited, designed, photographed and published a distinctive, professional art catalogue with a unique style, for use in art galleries.
• I'm one of the few fine artists in Canada with a background in professional graphic art, graphic design, illustration, photography, writing, editing, Web site creation and general computer and Internet skills (business communications, in other words). That suite of communications prowess has given me an advantage at promoting my work. For a number of years I offered those business communications services to other companies, under the auspices of Design Write Communications, the company I founded in 1996.
• I'm one of the few, full-time professional, veteran visual artists in Canada, with my own sole proprietorship. (My company name is Tony Max Art.)
Injury in addition to visual problems
In 1994, as a pedestrian in North Vancouver, I was struck by a car driven by a careless driver. I've suffered constant back and shoulder pain since then, despite a variety of treatment modalities, exercise regimens and approximately 175 medical visits. For a while, when I stopped chiropractic treatments, the pain was so severe that I could barely stand for more than five or ten minutes without serious pain. I have been getting chiropractic treatemants regularly for several years, which have stopped – and to some degree reversed – the degeneration of my musuloskelatal system that was affected by the accident.
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Taking a break during an art and photography excursion on a hot, summer day on the coast of British
Columbia
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Introduction
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