the Art of Kevin a Short

A W A R D S

Kevin Short Biography

1960

Mom is still waterskiing one month before my birth. -------------------------------------

I can see San Diego Bay from the front yard in Point Loma.

sister Brenda

Granny brings a Guinea pig down when she visits, I Learn to walk before crawling, to keep up.

Weekends are spent on the sailboat.

crayons taste delicious!

A move to Santa Barbara makes Hendry’s Beach our playground. We call it “Henry’s”, it is now called Arroyo Burro Beach.

Mom lets us watercolor on huge sheets of cardboard and butcher paper, taking over the entire kitchen floor

I try eating catfood, not as good as you might think.

in Kindergarden, my coloring assignment of a pumpkin is the worst in class. . I have colored outside the lines more than any of the other children. My little pumpkin mimeograph is ringed by a halo of little red check marks..... I am crushed.

i am part of the Children’s Opera.

piano lessons from mom’s voice coach, Sharon Currier.

My pants fall down while performing at Santa Barbara Playhouse.

I can sail a boat by myself

I catch my first fish.

brother Brad

We move 8 miles to the small coastal burg of Goleta, lemon groves everywhere

Goleta Beach and College Point become our new beach.

Swim Team and Junior Life Guards

My home made siesmograph wins the science fair, it is the only siesmograph working in Santa Barbara County the day of the1968 earthquake.

Dad takes me up to the local mountains to dig adobe clay. he teaches me how to make tiles for the fireplace. We fire everthing in the kiln at home

sister Gwyneth

bumpy, lurching attempt at driving dad’s Studebaker Lark; what exactly does a clutch “do”?

as a family, we paint different types of flowers all over the walls of the bathroom. my daisy looks like a sunflower. nobody I know paints things on their walls.

My friend Paul Floodquist gets his eye poked out while stick-swordfighting with another friend.

I hike across the Sierras on the golden Trout Trail.

Diane and Pete (the “older cousins”) invite me along on one of their beach trips. This is the first time I see Trestles. This is the first time I feel like one of the big kids.

1973-I see the film Endless Summer.

Christmas —I receive a Greenough Wilderness surfboard.

I get out a pair of pliers and remove my own braces, (they were bugging me.)

I silkscreen a t-shirt of “Snoopy” surfing, in Graphic Arts Class. All my friends want one.

mow lawns, pull weeds, and baby sit to help pay my father back for new braces.

1974—I ride my metallic gold Schwinn Stingray (with the banana seat) collecting Rick Griffin’s “tales from the tube “ movie posters off of telephone poles.

FAMILY MOVES TO ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

Griffin’s Beautiful Jimi Hendrix Flying Eyeball poster haunts and intrigues me.

A friend gives me a David Lance Goines poster.

1975- I see “JAWS”

In English class, A friend tom snowden, hands me a book, Under Pressure by Frank Herbert. The cover painting is by John Berkey. For the first time I see that artists can make a living

I mysteriously develop a phobia concerning people touching my eyes.

1976-Certified Commercial Hot Air Balloon Pilot, the youngest in the United States

earn the rank of Eagle Scout

my chemistry teacher decides to humiliate a student, she picks me.

I meet Dorothy Black, Cibola High School’s art department head

While shoveling the manure from our horse’s stable, two drunks take pot shots at my brother and I. The bullets wiz just over our heads, we dive, and crawl through horse manure to safety

painted the school mascot on the gymnasium wall of high school

create artwork for US Department of Defense Airborne Laser Laboratory

1979-my painting instructor at University of New Mexico comments my work looks like Wayne Thiebaud. I become a huge Thiebaud fan.

At Malibu, Pepperdine University looks like a good place to gather academic credits for Art Center, I ask myself the question why must I be an Art Teacher in order to be a Painter?

I stand, fixated in front of one of the Van Gogh sunflowers at Norton Simon museum.

study painting with Janice Lowry

1984 -graduate- Art Center College of Design, Pasadena with honors .

artwork for Applied Technology Associates on Sensor Package, is launched into Earth Orbit aboard Space Shuttle

I meet Lonnie Frisbee. The second time I see him tells me about the future

I meet John Wimber. I go to work for his company

Spend a month working in Kowloon’s Walled City

rent a studio in San Clemente

I meet Gordon McClelland

move to El Morro Beach where I read Edward Abbey’s "Desert Solitare" while listening to Pink Floyd’s Meddle and the occasional coyote

move to Capistrano Beach, rent a studio in San Clemente

AMY

painting the “Disney Wonder” portrait rekindles my joy of Oil Paints

winner Hilo Hatties international aloha shirt competition

move to San Juan Capistrano

Ted Rosenfeld intorduces me to Tony Forster, we become friends