Jack Massey Paintings

After completing the MFA graduate program at the San Francisco Art Institute I moved to NYC and exhibited in a few galleries over the following 10 years; among them were the Park Place Gallery and the Robert Graham Gallery in Manhattan – and the Dwan Gallery in Los Angeles.

I had resided in New York about ten years when I met an artist who had recently begun tattooing in his studio and was doing well. I became interested and began hanging out in his studio during “business hours” and learning the process of tattooing. Eventually I acquired the necessary equipment, moved to New Orleans and opened a shop in the heart of the French Quarter. A year later I moved back to California and over the next 10 years opened and operated tattoo shops in San Diego, Monterey, and Salinas. Finally, I moved back “home” to San Francisco and opened a shop in the Mission District. A few years later I developed chronic Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and had to retire from the tattoo business.

I still had a lifelong passion for creating images and about a year after I quit tattooing I was inspired to try painting with an airbrush. I quickly discovered that a high degree of realism could be achieved with an airbrush, which was very exciting to me because during my recent years of moving around the country, I had discovered that People outside of the “mainstream” art world appreciated and enjoyed visual interpretations of the world they knew. Eventually, I began incorporating traditional brush methods again, along with the airbrush. I exhibited these paintings for several years at the Vorpal Gallery in San Francisco.

When I became a tattooist I spent many hours in the shop drawing and developing transfer techniques. These techniques included using a collection of visual information; ideas, sketches, cut outs, photos, etc to develop and compose images. So when I began doing airbrush paintings I used these same techniques to develop and compose paintings. Also, over 50 years of painting experience is in the mix.

In 2009, I became interested in making prints of recent paintings. After some research I learned about Giclee digital printing and located a master printer, who, using the Giclee process is capable of creating museum quality prints, and this progression eventually led me to begin using a computerized painting program to fine tune and complete the paintings for printing.
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testimonial:
“ I love the way you use color.. it’s bright and communicates beyond being bright.. the subtle vibrations that are life, fast and slow.. cohesive vs breaking things apart. (The viewer) can feel life emanating within the calmness..” (M.C.)_