Gregg Stone may be a tenth generation Californian, but those who know the man and his art think of him as the gringo with the soul of a Latino. He regularly prowls the avenues and byways of border region Hispanic communities with his camera, capturing images that are for the most part overlooked by others. He has also captured vistas of Cuba that, since the early 1960s, have been seen by few outsiders. But the images he brings back into his light-filled, airy studio in southern Orange County never see the light of day as photographs but as eerily beautiful multi-media paintings that reveal his subjects' essence as well as his own soul.

While the socio-economic underbelly of these locales clearly captivates him, he is also keenly aware of the cultural and architectural treasures that often incongruously share space alongside the hybrid flotsam of class inequity, urban anarchy and increasing globalization. Stone transposes this uniquely south-of-the-border visual cacophony, along with his sensitive portrayal of people inhabiting it, into the vivid tapestry of images that forms the sum total of his art.

No significant detail escapes Stone's watchful eye, yet he also does not edit his impressions nor does he pass judgment by implication. Instead, before being transposed into painterly narrative, his observations are filtered through his intelligence and life experience: He captures the exuberance of children wending their way to school, the piety of crones shuffling to church, Mariachis in threadbare costume playing their hearts out at street corners for pocket change, street vendors hawking their wares and prostitutes plying their territory for the lonely and the unfulfilled.

In a style that he describes as "Modern Realism," he creates captivating compositions rendered in watercolor, gouache and ink. However, those expecting or looking for slavishly realistic, saccharine depictions of "local color" had best look elsewhere.

Instead, his figurative images are often offset by backgrounds rendered in intriguiging layers of geometrically abstract forms or undulating shapes and, while he adheres to mostly conventional perspectives, his use of space gives his work special impact. For example, a painting titled "Asleep, Like I Wish I was" with its loosely brushed suggestion of fabric undulating in the breeze is a vibrant example of Stone's interpretative gifts. In this and many other compositions his drawing skills, acquired as part of his rigorous training as a graphic designer, come to the fore.

While he eschews overt sentimentality, Stone is not adverse to imbue his subjects with tenderness. A portrait of a young prostitute clad in the requisite garish lingerie of her profession, might not touch viewers until they focus on her face--a face with the innocent eyes of a child.

Stone acquired this gift to see beyond the obvious during tortuous years spent on the streets of Tijuana as an alcoholic and drug addict. It was here where he was befriended by people he calls "the forgotten" and now, clean and sober for more than a decade, he comes back regularly to share his gift. Painting the denizens of the streets, he imbues them with a dignity that the rest of society is unwilling to grant them. He sees beauty and character in places that most take pains to avoid.

Stone honed his artistic talent and his painting skills at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and received his bachelor's degree in fine art (BFA) in 1978. After graduation he became a successful freelance illustrator for several Los Angeles magazines.

Alas, success only hastened his descend into a drug and alcohol dependence that nearly cost him his life. However, once free from his habits, his artistic gifts resurfaced, bolstered by a renewed clarity of purpose and the unflinching encouragement of his friends and supporters.

His travels to Cuba further expanded his field of vision. He focused on the physical environment and the social and political realities of people he came to admire for their resiliency and unabashed joie de vivre. His paintings of once stately but now dilapidated buildings and streets, people at work and at play and the natural beauty of the countryside are more than plain observations. They are further evidence of irrepressible intelligence and wit. For example, his painting depicting a fading mural of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che'" Guevara titled "Even Che' Fades," is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the temporal nature of political proclivities.

Stone has branched out to paint in the barrios of Mexico City and the colorful port city of Ensenada. Here as well, he leads viewers to the core of the city's character. Multicultural by heritage and conviction, Gregg Stone is a painter for our times.

Daniella Walsh
January 2003


Daniella Walsh is a freelance journalist who specializes in writing about art and culture and the people who make it happen.