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A Note about jGibney and Photoart

by jGibney

As a self-taught Photoartist it has been an uphill battle for me in the adventure of creativity and theworld of art.
My creative mentor, who had started an art theater called "Experiment 6," committed suicide.
Still, going forward and obtaining a BA degree in Humanities at the University of South Florida in 1969
with an interest in playwriting and cinema, it was almost impossible to get recognition.

Convincing the Department Head of Humanities that a course on playwriting should be offered, I was able to get enough students interest for the class to be presented. Everyone wanted to make movies. So, out I go and obtain a 16mm cinema camera. No one really wanted to make movies. When my witting professor heard that I had a camera, he got a roll of Tri-Xfilm from the ABC affiliate TV station Channel 10.Not even knowing how to put the film in the camera, I got a friend that worked at another TV station to show me. Camera loaded, around the university I went, filming. At the end of the day I turned the film over to the professor. Later, that evening, I got a call to watch the local ABC News Show. And there it was the first footage I had ever shot was on the news. My friend heard about this. Told his station manager and I get a call. They wanted to know if I would shot TV commercials for them. So I did. Later, while working at a law firm in Tampa,the firm needed a photographer to take pictures of accidents. So, I got a camera and I did. People asked me to do their wedding pictures. People asked me to do their portraits. People asked me to do videos. So, I did, but not enough to make a living. Now, let's get to the artist side of photoartist. At the university most of the professors had never seen an Impressionists painting, even though I had. I had been to Europe while in the Army. For one of my classes, we had to do an art project on Impressionism So, off I went to the art store. With oils and canvas, out I went to paint the Hillsborough dam.Submitting my open air painting, I received a B as credit, while another student received an A for doing part of a Seurat (a pointillist painter) picture. Needless to say I was not happy. So, for a long time I would not show my paintings, hiding them or giving them away.

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