Gabriel Goldman is a self-taught painter who utilizes his extensive experience as a creative director and designer to inform his creative process. Gabriel has had a far-ranging career as a marketing and design agency owner three times over, and his work has been featured in numerous design and cultural publications over the past 20 years. Painting has become a way for Gabriel to test the boundaries of creativity and truly pursue art and his own inherent creativity on his terms, free from commercial need or the mass consumerism of his design background. It is a way to fully immerse himself in opening his soul to the public and sharing very raw, creative, and personal emotions through art, helping him better define his own meaning of self. Gabriel enjoys surfing, being in the ocean, and snowboarding. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Sydney, and their three tween/teen children, Ginger, Kainoa, and Leilani. On any weekend, you can find him either on the coast or on a mountain, always with family.I find deep influence from my personal internal struggle for meaning in oneself. I have been a professional creative throughout my career, spending the past 20+ years as a designer, agency owner, and marketer. Being a product of my dichotomies—mixed ethnic background, religion, environment, and socio-economic status—I continually find myself at the crossroads, constantly examining the definition of self and searching for the who and why, always questioning the now. My paintings are examples of me grappling with emotions sparked by the different versions of myself, solving for self; they are emotional explorations into thoughts and ideas that help me define and redefine the definition. I draw creative and artistic inspiration from culture, nature, music, and relationships. I study the past and dissect the meaning of memories in my art, working to make sense of the emotion. Each piece carries meaning and is as abstract as the emotions and memories that guide them—part dreamlike, part psychedelic, part confusing. Themes of self, surface in some of my work, as I enjoy wrestling with the different aspects of this concept in the names and content of the pieces. I appreciate the freedom of mixed media and prefer to paint on Strathmore 140Lb watercolor paper in roll form or oversized canvas, sometimes raw, sometimes framed. I begin each painting with ink and graphite, creating a semi-hidden layer of markings and drawings that serve as the base for most works—sometimes guiding my decisions and being very apparent, sometimes remaining mostly hidden to the viewer. I tend to paint mostly at night when time is irrelevant, and I can be alone with my thoughts. These initial thoughts are usually the purest ideas and tend to occur quickly and gesturally. As the paintings evolve, I add or subtract elements to make way for new ideas. After this step, I layer on color and maneuver it to achieve the desired composition. I prefer working in acrylic, enjoying a wet surface, which requires working fast due to drying times. I avoid using medium to thin the paint. I like to mix acrylic paints and oil stick on canvas, creating a duality—the combination of opposing forces that somehow create harmony. I am agnostic to materials being conducive; I appreciate the way each medium applies and find no issue in combining them to produce the desired outcome. The process is very intuitive and is usually guided by a thought that inspires me and leads the exploration. I tend to enter a painting predicting one outcome but allow the process to guide the result. I never fight the outcome and welcome the results. No painting is bad or wrong; they are all just steppingstones to a collective outcome. As each piece is based on a deep-seated past musing, they all have meaning in their final form. I love bold color, loose lines, and expressive gestures. I love fine detail and forced scale; the duality of big/small, high/low, bold/soft subconsciously makes sense, as I have spent a lifetime dealing with the idea of multiple concepts of self—I value the contrasts. I favor large works and find most comfort in roll paper as it provides a limitless surface and inspires vastness. The ocean and ethnic references find their way into my work, both literally in the colors or surreally in the names or subject matter. Coming from Hawaii, I have an affinity for the open possibilities of the ocean, the movement of the sky, from the winds and the colors of the land. I also draw cues from deep-seated personal and historical self-identifying waypoints in my life and in the lives of my family members in the past. I find it fascinating to think about how those experiences have helped shape my definition of identity. I have lived my life in the Northwest, but my soul and heart reside on the islands in my ancestors and history; my painting allows me to visit as I wish.