Meet Gregory Malphurs | Fine Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gregory Malphurs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gregory, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The most important factor behind my success is that I am very clear where my talents lie and who I am. So it’s never unclear to me where I belong. Therefore I’m acutely focused on my goals – my definite chief aim. This allows me to more easily choose which opportunities that move me forward. Being a professional artist would be extremely difficult if I were still “finding myself.”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My work focuses on rethinking portraiture by restructuring the way a subject is represented. Making a painting or drawing that is an exact visual likeness to its subject doesn’t make any sense to me. And it’s easy. Why not take a photograph? It’s much harder to figure out what is inside a subject and bring that to the surface.

My work is a deconstruction recipe of emotions, colors, stories, and inspirations reflecting life with its troubles and complications—each part and piece of a puzzle making it whole.

From an inside-out view, the work reveals a universal common bond of personal struggle…that life is a series of fragments that we have to make sense of – introspection, fragmentation, complexity of being, dealing with confliction.

Intuitively I feel the need to always challenge myself to go further, not to accept things at face value and never settle. And….a need to go deeper and look at the places in ourselves we would rather avoid. And I think that’s what sets my work apart.

I’ve gotten to where I am today through many factors. I’m virtually tireless at creating and never lack inspiration which is a large part of it. I never stop, and never will. But I also have a strong network of support that carries me through any stumbling blocks. It’s critical for an artist to have a “mastermind group” to lean on for opinions, critique, advice and inspiration. There are several artists that I speak with weekly that fuel me in these ways.

I’d want to challenge art lovers and collectors in this world to ask themselves “What story does the art on your walls tell?” Does the art you collect challenge the viewer? Does it ask questions? Or does it just match the sofa.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d start in Santa Monica where I live and work our way north on Highway 1 up the coast. Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Carmel, Big Sur, San Francisco, Muir Woods ending in Point Reyes.

The natural beauty in these places is all you need. Hang out – take it all in.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Maxine Helfman. Her unwavering support, mentorship, friendship and epic talent continues to inspire me to be a better creator and person. @maxinehelfman2

Website: https://www.gregorymalphursart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregorymalphurs/

Image Credits
Image 1: “ANTENNA” – 2022 – Oil, graphite and collage on Arches oil paper – 45 x 18” – Available. Image 2: “PERFECT DAY” – 2022 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 36 x 23” – Available. Image 3: “NAIL” – 2022 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 22 x 30” – Available. Image 4: “BIRTH” – 2022 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 22 x 30” – Available. Image 5: “CLAIRVOYANT” – 2021 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 12 x 16” – Private collection Los Angeles. Image 6: “TRANSFIGURATION” – 2021 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 22 x 30” – Available. Image 7: “THE FAMILY” – 2021 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 36 x 15” – Private collection Los Angeles. Image 8: “GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD” – 2021 – Oil, oil stick, graphite on Arches paper – 54 x 54” – Available. All Images ©2022 Gregory Malphurs