John Pitre

John Pitre (born 1942, New York City) is an American visionary art paintercite web |url= http://www.wylandkw.com/artists/ |title= Wyland Family of Artists |author= Robert Wyland |work= Wyland Galleries |quote= Pitre, who calls himself a storyteller, creates his painted worlds from his imagination rather than from reference. He begins the process of creation by contemplating a theme that moves him. ] cite web |url= http://www.eso-garden.com/index.php?/weblog/comments/john_pitres_art/ |title= John Pitre’s Art |author= Ursi Spaltenstein |work= Ursi's Eso Garden |date= 25 April 2006 ] based in Hawaii. He has been called the most bankable living American surrealist.cite web |url= http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/80/80429_art_of_swapping_your_way_to_a_1m_home.html |title=The art of swapping your way to a £1m home |author= Paul Taylor |work= Manchester Evening News |date= 5 February 2004 ] He is also a diver,cite web |url= http://www.fineartspot.com/artists/p/john_pitre-biography.php |title= John Pitre |author= Fine Art Enterprises |work= FineArtSpot.com ] cite web |url= http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/sep3/demares.htm |title= Communing with Dolphins with Ryan DeMares |author= Celeste Adams |work= The Spirit of Ma‘at, vol. 3 no. 2 |date= September 2002 |quote= My icon for this transformation is an image created by the visionary artist John Pitre. The painting hangs in a gallery in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii. Every time I lead a dolphin encounter group on the Kona Coast, I stop by the gallery to view that painting… a tropical ocean filled with dolphins who are ascending from the sea to the sky through a circular rainbow… ] an environmentalist,cite web |url= http://www.totonetwork.com/node/203481 |title= Welcome John Pitre |author= Bobby Kimball |work= Toto Network |date= 20 February 2007 ] an inventor,cite web |url= http://www.wylandgalleries.com/index.cfm?CFID=604566&CFTOKEN=74827&do=featuredartists&artist=4 |title= John Pitre |author= Robert Wyland |work= Wyland Fine Art |quote= Today, many of his paintings are considered modern classics… Other creations from Pitre’s imaginative mind include devices for generating electricity from the movement of ocean waves and currents… and aircraft designs he has personally built and flown. ] and a helicopter and ultralight seaplane pilot.cite web |url= http://www.hanahou.com/pages/Magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=606&MagazineID=38 |title= Birds of Steel |author= Dennis Hollier, photos by Sergio Goes |work= Hana Hou! Vol. 10, No. 4, August/September 2007 ] cite web |url= http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/thomas-deir.html?viewcomplete=true |title= Thomas Deir |author= Biography |work= Fine Art America ]

John Pitre's art addresses issues such as ecology, overpopulation, responsibility for stewardship of the Earth, the quest to understand the mysteries of the universe, and the fragility of life and of relationships.cite web |url= http://www.theqmagazine.com/qv2/01_issues/Qmag04.pdf |title= Living the Fantasy |author= George Filip |work= [http://www.theqmagazine.com/ The Q] (vol. 01, no. 4, p. 16), the Arts Magazine of the Qbix Gallery, Old City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |format= pdf |date= Spring 2007 |quote= Because surrealism can evoke emotion and stimulate thought, it can also serve as a forceful vehicle for social commentary… Water, light and circles play symbolic roles in Pitre’s art. Water is symbolic of birth, and cleansing of consciousness. Light represents enlightenment and divine understanding. The circle signifies the cycle of Life, unity with nature, and eternity. ] Posters of his paintings were very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. One of them, a print of his painting "Restrictions,"John Pitre's " [http://www.johnpitre.com/JP/RSTsplash.htm Restrictions] ".] has sold several million copies.

One of John Pitre's best known paintings is "A New Dawn," a 1965 work which shows a modern human reduced to the status of a caveman in the midst of smoldering urban ruins. This painting, in the weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks more than thirty five years later, was seen by some as a foreshadowing of what came to be known as the Ground Zero of those events.cite web |url= http://www2.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/arts/oct01/auercol10100901a.asp |title= Painting foreshadows ground zero images |author= James Auer |work= Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |date= 10 October 2001 |quote= It was titled, "A New Dawn," and it showed a human being - now reduced, in the words of the artist, John Pitre, "to the status of a caveman" - standing in front of a pile of smoldering ruins, all that remained of a fallen New York skyscraper [ [http://www.johnpitre.com/JP/ANDfull.htm image] ] . In the accompanying text Pitre noted that he had made the oil painting in 1965 as he watched the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. build their nuclear arsenals. ] In 2004, the owner of the original painting, which was valued in 1997 at $1.7 million, offered "A New Dawn" in trade for a £1 million house on the London real estate market.

With decorative tile artist Thomas Deir,cite web |url= http://www.hawaiianstylemagazine.com/article/articles/123/1/Hawaiians-Tile/Page1.html |title= Hawaiians' Tile |author= Don Acuaman |work= Hawaiian Style Magazine |date= 24 August 2007 ] who was his apprentice at the time, Pitre co-invented Genesis Artist Colors,cite web |url= http://www.arttalk.com/Genesis/index.htm |title= Genesis Paint Page |author= Art Talk |work= The Artisan, the quarterly newsletter of Genesis Artist Colors International ] cite web |url= http://www.thomasdeir.com/genesis.html |title= Brilliant Color: The problems associated with acrylic and oil paints simply don't exist any more |author= Joanne Hayes-Rines |work= Inventors' Digest |date= January/February 2003 ] a synthetic oil paint which remains wet and malleable until it is heat cured.

Pitre invented the Range of Motion (ROM) and the "Time Works" exercise equipmentcite web |url= http://www.acefitness.org/media/media_display.aspx?NewsID=67 |title= 'Four Minutes To Fitness' Claim Is No Exercise Shortcut |work= American Council on Exercise study |date= 23 March 1999 |quote= Time Works, according to ACE’s results, appears to be best suited to the beginning exerciser. While it does appear to offer some benefit, particularly to the lower-level exerciser, the manufacturer's claim of a four-minute workout should be modified to reflect what can be realistically expected from exercising on this machine. ] cite web |url= http://www.creativetrendsinc.com/projects.htm |title= Projects |author= Mark Hinrichs |work= Creative Trends Inc ] cite web |url= http://www.johnpitre.com/bioROM.htm |title= ROM (Range of Motion) |work= John Pitre official website (Featured in "Vogue" in 1995.)] which was rated the "Best of What's new in 1993" by "Popular Science" magazine. He is also the founder and director of Natural Power Concepts.cite web |url= http://naturalpowerconcepts.com/ |title= Natural Power Concepts website ]

John Pitre studied at the Art Students League of New Yorkcite web |url= http://www.artbrokerage.com/art/pitre/ |title= John Pitre |author= The Art Brokerage |work= ArtBrokerage.com |quote= ] and has lived and worked in Hawaii for three decades. With his ex-wife, artist Ginette Pitre, and their daughters Dawn Pitre and Tanya Joy Pitre, both artists, he is the proprietor of Pitre Fine Arts in Honolulu.

Books

* "John Pitre: The Art and Works of a Visionary." Barbara T. Erskine and Roger Jellinek, eds. Honolulu: Pitre Fine Arts, 1996. ISBN 0-96481-830-2.

Patents

A few of John Pitre's patents:
* 1988: variable resistance exercise apparatuscite web |url= http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4728099-description.html |title= Variable resistance exercise apparatus |author= U.S. Patent No. 4,728,099 issued 1 March 1988 to John Pitre |work= Patent Storm ]
* 1997: plastisol paint, with Thomas Deircite web |url= http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5700858-description.html |title= Plastisol paint and method of use |author= U.S. Patent No. 5,700,858 issued 23 December 1997 to Thomas Deir and John Pitre |work= Patent Storm ]
* 1999: full body exercise apparatuscite web |url= http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5908373-description.html |title= Full body exercise apparatus |author= U.S. Patent No. 5,908,373 issued 1 June 1999 to John Pitre |work= Patent Storm ]

References

External links

* [http://www.pitreart.com/ Pitre Fine Arts Gallery]
* [http://www.johnpitre.com/ The Official Website of John Pitre]