The career of Josh Sternberg is just beginning. You wouldnt know it, however, from the care, precision and maturity found in each and every one of his pieces. The depth of Sternbergs paintings is not merely psychological; it is also literal, as he builds layer upon layer of paint and various found objects to create
a complex, sometimes alarming, multi-dimensional universe. Typically, after the eyes have been thoroughly dazzled by Sternbergs bold use of color and his ability to discover heretofore unknown shapes and markings, the works enormous wealth steadily builds to a flaming crescendo within the heart and mind of the observer, finally exploding and transforming like a supernova into a black hole. So who is this Josh Sternberg fellow? Whats his story?
Born and raised in Chicago, blah blah, played piano, played guitar, asked important questions from a young age, such as, What if were just walking around in a gigantic aquarium? Then what? Damned if I know. Dont even know if it makes a difference. But I do know there aint many 11 year-olds asking that question. As a kid, Josh was pretty good at basketball and floor hockey, and was remarkably nimble and agile considering his brute strength. He enjoyed stealing candy, because of both the challenge and the delicious taste of those sweet snacks hed shove into his pockets as his tender eyes screamed innocence to all caught in their gaze.
At the age of 18, in a divine flash he was struck by the interaction of the wild colors with the anonymous faces with the pulsating neon lights with the thick musty air... Wishing - nay, needing - to memorialize this beauty, he began drawing, then painting, showing his stuff to his friends, who commented that his work was pretty good. Soon after he was admitted to The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where he received a BFA in painting and animation. He fiddled around Boston, working at an animation studio. One day on a visit to New York the idea to up and move there lodged in his skull like a walnut in the jowls of a cute yet disease-infested squirrel. With Sternbergs rapidly growing skills and accomplishments, he felt it was time to move to a bigger city, a city ripe with opportunity and a history of nurturing and challenging young artists. He found a room in Brooklyn at a place called The Blue House, where several other talented artists were consuming life with fervor and recklessness. In this wild environment Sternberg learned to control the chaos, sharpening his aesthetic both as an artist and as a man of the community; continuing to paint, he took a job as a school teacher, working with inner-city kids and pioneering digital media programs. He went on to become an educational technology integration consultant for a non-profit company in NYC. He recently moved to Seattle and is working as a Flash Developer at Boeing.
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