GJ Laisure
Artist
Venice, California
As a resident of Venice California for over 25 years, Venice is my home. There is an abundance of art in our city. I started painting in 2009 because I wanted to preserve some of the work by local graffiti artist and muralists. Their art is exciting and certainly part of the attraction to our city. I photographed several of the more interesting graffiti works, sketched and painted them on canvas. That was the beginning. Later I became more interested in political art. I wanted to capture the current climate of repression, outrage and social changes in our declining democracy under the Trump Administration. I believe art is often more thought provoking than the 24/7 news media. I have also been commissioned to paint works by LeRoy Neiman, Rocky vs Apollo.