Blue Sky (artist)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Blue Sky (formerly Warren Edward Johnson) is an American

sculptor[1] best known for his mural, Tunnelvision.[2]

Biography

Blue Sky was born on September 18, 1938, in Columbia, South Carolina, as Warren Edward Johnson. In 1954, his first foray into art won him a national poster competition[2] two years before he graduated from Dreher High School. He designed and drew the Dreher Blue Devil used by the school.[3] For the next six years, he served as a jet aircraft technician in the Air National Guard, 169th Cameron Squad, while working several different jobs to pay for college – including as a parade float builder, a layout artist, and a dance instructor, among others.[2]

Sky attended the

Metropolitan Museum. Sky was then invited to study at the Art Students League of New York
, where he lived and worked for the next year.

Upon moving back to Columbia in 1966, Sky worked as a draftsman and conceptual artist for Wilbur Smith & Associates before returning to USC for graduate school. In 1970, he graduated, earning a Master of Education because the university had not yet been certified to award a Master of Fine Arts.

In 1974, Sky legally changed his name from Warren Edward Johnson to Blue Sky.[4] He signed paintings before this year with the abbreviation "WAR."

In 2000, Sky was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina's highest civilian state honor, for his contributions to the arts - particularly for painting the state's first large-scale public mural in 1975.[2]

Career

Sky has been solely supported by his art since 1970. Although he is best known for his public art, many of his public projects are self-funded, and his living is earned primarily through the sale of original artwork through the Blue Sky Gallery, which is currently located in the renovated Arcade Mall in Columbia, SC.[5]

Tunnelvision (1975)

Main article: Tunnelvision

Sometime after graduating, Sky took an interest in painting a mural on the wall of the

communist (see: Diego Rivera
).

Sky claims that the idea for Tunnelvision appeared to him in a dream. Although the work is technically rendered in

People magazine.[6]

Public murals

  • Tunnelvision - AgFirst Farm Credit Bank - Columbia, SC (1975)
  • Moonlight on the Great Pee Dee - John L. McMillan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse - Florence, SC (1978)
  • Overflow Parking - Flint Journal Building - Flint, MI (1978)
  • Winter Beach - Sumter, SC (1980)
  • Spirit of the Air - Charlotte, NC (1982)
  • Incident at the Kirkwood Hotel - Camden, SC (1982)
  • Old Darlington Public Square - Bicentennial mural - Darlington, SC (1985)
  • The River Jordan - Three Fountains Church - Springdale, SC (1987)
  • Full Moon Over the River Jordan - New Hope Church - Pelion, SC (1988)
  • Gervais Street Extension - South Carolina State Museum - Columbia, SC (1989)
  • Five Points - 1948 - Harper's Restaurant - Columbia, SC (1991)
  • Man Escapes - Satchel Ford Elementary School - Columbia, SC (1994)
  • Partly Cloudy - Azzurro's Restaurant - Richmond, VA (1994)
  • University of South Carolina - USC Visitors Center - Columbia, SC (1994)
  • Night Train - Fort Pierce, FL (1995)
  • Cayce Historical Museum Mural - Cayce, SC (1996)
  • Overflow - Crayton Middle School - Columbia, SC (1997)
  • Adopt Us - Animal Shelter mural and sculpture - Columbia, SC (1999)
  • The Other Side of the Tunnel - AgFirst Farm Credit Bank - Columbia, SC (2000)
  • Congaree Swamp - Congaree National Park - Columbia, SC (2002)
  • Union Mural - Keepsake Jewelers - Union, SC (2008)

Public sculptures

  • This is not a tree - Columbia Steel Palmetto Tree - Columbia, SC (2000)
  • NEVERBUST - Main Street - Columbia, SC (2000)
  • Busted Plug Plaza - AgFirst Farm Credit Bank - Columbia, SC (2001)
  • Ped-Xing - Richland Cultural Council doors project - Richland County, SC (2002)
  • Kawasakisaurus - South Carolina Bank and Trust - Columbia, SC (2003)

References

  1. ^ "Blue Sky | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  2. ^ a b c d "2015-2016 Bill 5465". www.scstatehouse.gov. South Carolina Legislature Online. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  3. ^ Warner M. Montgomery (9 September 2005). "Dreher and Columbia meet on football field for 58th time". www.thecolumbiastar.com. Columbia Star. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  4. ^ a b Stephen Pastis. "Local artist Blue Sky continues to create for Columbia". The Daily Gamecock. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  5. ^ Kendall, Janet Jones (May 3, 2017). "Blue Sky opens gallery on Main". The State. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  6. ^ "Detour! It Looks Like a Tunnel but It's Really Blue Sky's Mural on a Solid Stone Wall". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved 2020-09-08.

External links

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