Biography

Greetings, ...welcome to the site! I am Thorn ... aka ...( Greg T. Piszko).

But what's in a name? I am a life-long native of NJ, and a bit of a renaissance man. I like to dabble in a few things here and there. My main passions are art, movies, music and riding on my scoot. I like playing around with digital mediums, but I am still an old school artist at heart. In my mind there is no better form of meditation, than sitting alone at a table with a pencil and a piece of paper!

I have lent my skills to a few trades over the years, such as screen printing, sign making, mural painting, graphic design and at the heart of my creative career, airbrush artist extraordinaire. Yes, I was part of that 80's pop culture phenomenon known as custom apparel paint slinging. That was my stock in trade for almost a decade. I did more hearts, rainbows and unicorns than I care to remember, but I managed to create some really cool custom work as well. Though my airbrushing career turned me into a human Xerox machine, it helped to sharpen my drawing skills.

Since then, I have focused my talents more towards illustration and design work. I worked for awhile as an illustrator for a small NYC based magazine called "Enchante". And a few other small publications here and there. I have gotten involved in recent years, in designing custom tattoo work for clients.

Even in the early days I was born to be a rebel, destined to be the bohemian who thinks outside the box. My first foray into the world of art came at the tender age of five, armed with a box of "Crayola " crayons and a ordinary ditto sheet of a girl in a rain coat holding an umbrella. It lead to my first art lesson ever given and the introduction to my first art critic. The full version of this tale can be found in the Extras section under "First Critic".

By the time I got to the first grade, I was already exhibiting signs of child prodigy material, by winning the First Place Award in the school art show. What a difference a year can make! But I knew even then that being an artist was in my stars. It was also at this time that I began developing an interest in music and motorcycles. As you can tell by the photo on the right. Check out that big ol' hog and that groovy 60's riding gear!

I dabble on the very basic of levels, but I have always enjoyed playing percussion instruments, whether it be on a drum kit or my small collection of hand drums. I grew up in an age where everyone wanted to be either John Lennon or Paul McCartney, and I was quite content to be Ringo Starr. Music has always been an inspirational part of my life. Sort of like mental and emotional lubricant.

I have a variety of different interests in life such as studying history, mythology, theology, metaphysics, and the occasional bit of quantum mechanics. Some of the other things that rock my world consist of watching really well made movies, traveling out to Renaissance Festivals ( in period garb ), sneaking out to other worldly places ( whenever opportunities arise ) and enjoying the freedom of riding my motorcycle out on the open roads.

I took a five week cross country motorcycle trip, a lap around the continental United States. Met a lot of cool people, saw some amazing scenery, and basically had the experience of a lifetime. The Photos section has a variety of pictorial libraries, including places around the world I have been. There are also pictures of my work, from before the days of digital cameras, so I apologize in advance for the quality.

Much of my art is inspired by the works of other artists such as M.C. Escher, Greg Hildebrandt, Maxfield Parrish, Roger Dean and Salvador Dali. Though mostly of a fantasy or illustrative nature, I try to employ the use of iconic themes, dramatic uses of light, vivid color schemes and a subtle sense of geometric composition in my body of work. Now that we live in a digital world, I have a much bigger palette to work with. And it is just great that the internet allows artists such as myself to exhibit our work to a much wider audience. "Ars Longa,Vita Brevis"!