Alan Iberg
Artist Bio
From way back in grade school my favorite part of the school day was art class. I was in my element when we were given the opportunity to paint on big sheets of paper with water-based paints and wear my father's old shirt as a smock. Always drawing pictures for my friends and cousins for them to enjoy gave me great satisfaction. An extremely supportive sixth-grade art teacher was very encouraging and got some of my work entered into local art talent contests in suburban Chicago, which bolstered my good feelings about creating visual imagery. The love of strong colors beginning in this period has stayed with me my entire life.
College presented the life challenge of deciding what would provide ongoing satisfaction as an adult. Dabbling in languages and literature, religion, and philosophy broadened my horizons, but it was always an artistic expression that helped me feel my humanity and contact with the world. Painting, drawing, printmaking, and art history became my major. Graduate work in Art Education proved valuable in exposing me to other mediums such as pottery and jewelry making, but it is always painting that I go back to. Teaching did not ring the bell for me, and I spent time in the healthcare field and communications industry until I was able to go happily back to painting full time, where I am happiest creating highly colorful abstract spaces evoking fantasies, dreams, and emotions that hopefully bring engagement and some pleasure to the viewer, who always come to my work with their own life experience to overlay upon mine and hopefully find some communion.