HomeARTISTDrew Curtis: A Life Devoted to Art

Drew Curtis: A Life Devoted to Art

Drew Curtis has been making art for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Oklahoma, his gift quickly became apparent so much so that classmates nicknamed him Drew the Drawer. By sixth grade, he was already painting murals for school holidays, filling spaces with vibrant imagery and seasonal celebration.

Despite his natural ability, Curtis felt disconnected from the education system. His growing disillusionment led him to leave high school just half a credit short of graduation, setting him on a path filled with unconventional experiences that would later fuel his creative journey.

Adventures Beyond the Classroom

Curtis’s early years were marked by a restless pursuit of experience. For a brief time, he worked with the Carson and Barnes Circus as a roustabout, living within the raw, itinerant energy of circus life. He later hitchhiked across the country, embracing a transient lifestyle that exposed him to diverse people, landscapes, and moments of inspiration.

Eventually, his travels brought him to Princeton, New Jersey, where he lived for five years. It was during this period that his commitment to art deepened. Painting shifted from a pastime into a daily discipline, becoming an anchor in his life and a way to give form to the intangible.

New York: A Home for Art

In 1984 Curtis relocated to Manhattan, immersing himself in the vitality of New York City’s art scene. Today, he lives and works in Brooklyn, where he continues to paint with the same dedication that has defined his life.

Curtis has taken an unconventional path as an artist. Rather than pursue gallery representation or a traditional career structure, he sells his paintings directly on the streets of New York City. This choice keeps his work rooted in authenticity, bringing him into direct connection with the people who encounter his art in its most immediate form.

He has never framed art as a career, nor has he pursued it as one. For Curtis, making art is not a profession but a way of living, a daily practice that has accompanied him through decades of exploration and growth.

The Philosophy of Creation

Curtis views painting as a way of thinking without words. The final image can be defined and discussed in language, but the act of creation itself arises from a purely sensual process.

Images often come to him as haunting presences, like ghosts demanding release. His paintings are not optional expressions but necessary exorcisms, a way of giving shape to what lingers in his mind until it is transferred onto canvas or paper.

Although techniques and tools can be taught, Curtis believes the essence of painting cannot be instructed. True creativity, in his view, lies in mystery, independence, and the courage to think for oneself.

Artwork Spotlight: Ghost Tree (2023)

One of Curtis’s recent works, Ghost Tree (oil on paper, 2023), reflects his fascination with imagery that carries both memory and presence. The tree, long a symbol of life, stability, and rootedness, appears here with an ethereal, spectral quality. It suggests not only nature’s resilience but also its fragility, something remembered, lost, or glimpsed beyond the visible world.

The piece embodies the dualities that run through much of Curtis’s work: the seen and unseen, the ordinary and the mysterious, the tangible and the fleeting. Ghost Tree stands as a testament to the haunting quality of images that demand release, offering viewers a moment to pause and reflect on their own connections to memory and imagination.

Life and Art as One

Curtis’s life is inseparable from his art. Each chapter, from his childhood murals to his days with the circus, his years of hitchhiking, and his decades in New York, has been accompanied by a painting. His decision to sell his work on the streets is part of this continuity, reflecting a refusal to separate creation from lived experience.

For those who encounter his paintings, the experience is both immediate and personal. There are no gallery walls or intermediaries, just the work and the artist himself, standing in the same urban rhythm as his audience.

Conclusion

Drew Curtis’s journey defies convention. His life as an artist is not defined by career milestones but by a relentless commitment to creation. From childhood in Oklahoma to the streets of New York City, painting has been his constant companion, shaping his identity and sustaining his spirit.

Works like Ghost Tree reveal not only his instinctive approach to painting but also his belief that art exists beyond words, as a mystery that must be lived rather than explained.

For Curtis, art is not a pursuit or a profession. It is life itself, raw, unpredictable, and endlessly generative.

Caroline Margaret
Caroline Margarethttp://showcasemyart.com
Contact: Caroline@showcasemyart.com
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