Gregory Blackstock
Although the Seattle Times published one of Greg's drawings taken from the TV series "Batman" in 1966, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that he began to draw in earnest. Now, his subjects range from state birds to state prisons, gardening tools to WWII bombers, from mackerel to Boeing jet liners.
In 2001 Greg retired from his "25 1/3" years of work as a pot washer at the Washington Athletic Club (WAC). Back in the ‘80s, the WAC began to occasionally include small reproductions of Greg’s work in their employee newsletter. Greg began to plan out his drawings based on the publication schedule and, thrilled with attention, became very prolific. As the newsletter would only reproduce the images in black and white, Greg didn’t begin using color in his drawings until after he retired.
Greg enjoys music and especially likes playing on any of his four accordions. He used to frequent area sports arenas and the Opera House to play his accordion outside, and always tried to fit the music to the venue. At 63, he can often still be seen playing “The Husky Fight Song” near the entrance to the college stadium at the start of the season. He is self taught on the piano and the organ, and often relaxes by rewriting sheet music into a different, more difficult, key.
Greg is an incredible mimic and perfectly speaks the rudiments of perhaps a dozen languages. At a recent NYC exhibition he surprised one of the guests by engaging her in a Japanese conversation. He can also read and write the Russian alphabet, but has not yet learned the language. Greg has embraced his recent fame with a combination of the autistic’s characteristic self absorption and his own unique sense of humor. For example, upon arrival to a still “empty” exhibition hall, he very astutely exclaimed “Where are all the people? I am on a business trip!” .
Some of his illustrations have been featured on a collection of t-shirts by an avant-garde French fashion label “Comme des Garçons”. The Seattle Art Museum Gift Shop has produced a t-shirt using one of his drawings, and he has been a subject in a recent documentary by a German film company .
In 2006, a collection of Gregory Blackstock’s works was published by Princeton Architectural Press and has been internationally well received. Greg is represented by Garde Rail Gallery in Seattle, Washington. www.garde-rail.com
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Gregory Blackstock
Born 1946 - Seattle, Washington
Seattle artist Gregory Blackstock is an autistic savant, whose love of art has helped him overcome many of the limitations of autism. He is recognized for his uncanny depictions using incredible precision, straight lines and text, all of which are executed without the aid of a straight rule. The detail to his work, as well as his memory skills, is incredibly faultless. Greg creates his unique visual lists using graphite, ink, crayons and crayola markers on varying sizes of paper and his works are depicted in categorical fashion of neat rows and columns. He often creates very large drawings by taping several sheets of paper together.
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