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La Jolla Village News May 24, 2000

Gutierrez Gets to Heart of Art by Robert Stern, Village News


Greg Gutierrez, 40, didn't always know he was an artist, even though he grew up fascinated by the lives of artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.

"I just woke up one day and decided I was a painter," he said. That was 10 years ago, and now he paints every day.

He is an artist with a heart of gold. As a surfer, fisherman and water enthusiast, Gutierrez translates his love for the ocean into his paintings and sculptures, which he uses to raise funds and awareness about critical issues in health and the environment. Of his desire to help others, Gutierrez quotes Fernando Aguerre of Reef Brazil, the popular shoe company: "Giving is like a boomerang; it always comes back to you."

Last year he donated a painting to the UCSD Cancer Center Luau and Longboard Invitational, and it sold for $1,100. Impressed by his results, the event promoters have honored him as the official artist of the 2000 UCSD Cancer Center Luau and Longboard Invitational taking place Aug. 27 at Scripps Pier. The event will feather legendary surfers including Skip Frye, Ricky Grigg, Kathy "Gidget" Zuckerman (the original Gidget) and Paul Strauch.

Last year's event raised over $200,000. For more information visit www.luau.ucsd.edu or call the cancer center, 822-0023.

"I am honored that they would include me," Gutierrez said.

His official event painting depicts a man standing in front of a surfboard with Scripps Pier in the background. It is based on a photograph of himself, but was painted as seen from the home of Fred Borelli, a dedicated volunteer to the UCSD Cancer Center program. Gutierrez' grandmother is a cancer survivor, and that is why he has such a strong emotional tie to the event.

"I think everyone is touched by cancer, now or later," he said.

He says his art is inspired by happiness.

"All the joy spurts out through my brush when I paint and through my fingers when I sculpt," he said.

Gutierrez has been sculpting for two years. According to Gutierrez, this is an ideal that puts him somewhat outside the mainstream art world, which focuses on more serious emotions and frowns on "surf art." For these reasons he has dubbed his current show "The Outsider: 45 Paintings and Sculptures Celebrating Life Outdoors," at the Playhouse Gallery, 291 Third Ave. in Chula Vista. The show continues through May 27. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday, 4 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. For more information, call the gallery, (619) 476-6636.

Gutierrez donated 20 percent of the opening night proceeds to the environmental Surfrider Foundation and to the Sunshine Foundation, an organization dedicated to children with chronic and terminal illnesses.

He was first drawn to the Sunshine Foundation by a fellow teacher whose 16-year-old daughter suffers from Progeria, a disease that rapidly accelerates the aging process.

"Everything I do for the Sunshine Foundation comes back to me tenfold," Gutierrez said. "They just stoke me."

Gutierrez is not only an artist, but a social studies and art teacher at Southwest High School, located between Imperial Beach and San Ysidro. There, he also runs the Huck Finn fishing club, named for the book by Mark Twain. He takes students, many of them "at-risk," on fishing trips. Most recently, he took students deep-sea fishing off the shores of Coronado.

He is a husband and father of two children - a 6-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy. A very relaxed individual, he says he tries to strike a balance between his art and his family. He constantly reminds himself that the latter is more important. But it wasn't always like that for Gutierrez.

Long ago, he found his pleasures skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in winter and surfing in Hawaii during the summer. For five years, he worked half the year as a ski shop manager in Mammoth; and for the rest of the year, he logged hours as a lifeguard in Maui, taking trips to the North Shore for its epic, barreling surf. But at 24, during one summer in Hawaii, he suddenly became disenchanted with his life of "empty pleasure." Broke, and literally picking fruit off the trees to eat, he had hit a low point.

"It was like I was dead," Gutierrez said.

He calls this his "spiritual awakening." He soon returned to the mainland and co-founded a clothing company - he won't mention the name because of an unfriendly split with his former partner. For years, he commuted from Carlsbad to San Clemente, pushing his products. But by the time he was 30, Gutierrez was fed up with his lifestyle. That is when he decided to paint.

"I have no idea why I paint; I just do it," he said.

He cites the whole planet and his family as his inspiration, but when it comes down to the art he says: "The canvas tells me where to go; I just start painting."

Gutierrez has found a home for his art in magazines such as Surfer's Journal, Surfer and Surfing Magazine. He has also had short stories and poems published in these magazines. In fact, Gutierrez is currently seeking a publisher for his book of fiction entitled "Zen and the Art of Surfing."

His art has been featured by ABC News San Diego. It is also on display, and for sale, at Taco Surf, 4657 Mission Blvd. in Pacific Beach.

He uses several mediums when painting, including acrylic and oil paints, and he creates on different surfaces such as canvas and wood. Gutierrez usually does his painting by theme, in a series of 10. His works include tubular waves, surfers, fish and fields of flowers. His art has an impressionistic quality; it is surreal. He often uses bright colors - lots of blue - and he tends to create a sense of motion, even when he paints objects that are standing still.

"I was never formally trained," he said. "I think that has given me a great deal of freedom."

Recently, Gutierrez did a painting in memory of Todd Chesser, a famed big-wave surfer who died a few years ago while surfing the outer reefs of Hawaii's North Shore.

"He was a pioneer, someone we all looked up to," Gutierrez said.

Although Gutierrez never knew Chesser, he is offering the painting to Chesser's mother who lives in Hawaii.

"I don't know if she wants it, but as a father I have to offer it to her," he said.

Gutierrez also has dabbled in abstract art for the past five years. Although this type of art is not well received in Southern California, the well known at collector Paul Ash has taken an interest in these works.


http://www.longboardluau.org/press/article00-01.html