about art by nemo Nemo was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and has a background in architectural and graphic design. His wife, Hannah, grew up in the Texas Hillcountry and has a degree in Architecture. The couple met while working in an architectural firm, but soon discovered their mutual love of art and business ownership. They started their business "Art by Nemo" in their historic home in downtown San Antonio. Their business is now located in Comfort, TX. In an effort to spread the word about their work, the couple now travels the country in their camper-van participating in art festivals and other venues. Nemo and Hannah collaborate on all aspects of their business, from subject matter and color schemes, to websites and social media, with Nemo applying his circle drawing ability to everything and Hannah utilizing her business sense to keep things running smoothly.
about the style The focus of "Art by Nemo" is not the subject, but the method by which it was constructed. As trained architectural drafts-people, Nemo and Hannah grew weary of computer aided drafting; they had the desire to put their manual drawing skills to work. Drafting requires a steady hand, mastery of one's tools and patience, as does the art work. They use various line weights combined with multiple styles of circles, spirals and swirls to compose the subjects. The entire image is drawn freehand with number two pencil and an accent of colored pencil on vellum drafting paper or clayboard. They also work with paint pen on canvas. Hannah and Nemo choose their subjects due to their beauty, but for them the real beauty is found in the complexity of details made with the most primitive of tools.
nemo's story At the beginning of my career as a professional artist I made abstract acrylic on canvas paintings. While I found a measure of success with that media, I have discovered a new media which has gotten much more public attention. Since July of 2006 I have been working with pencil on drafting vellum. I started drawing indirectly due to my financial situation. I needed more income than I could earn selling acrylic paintings, so I got a full time job at a local architectural firm.
My main focus in life has always been to make art, so it was a difficult transition for me to switch to a desk job. I felt the need to be making art when ever time allowed and realized that I had an hour to myself every work day for my lunch break. I didn't think bringing my paints to the office would be a good idea, so I decided to try something I had been thinking about for quite a while. My wife had lots of fashion magazines lying around the house that would eventually get thrown away. I had wanted to somehow use them in my art in order to find a new purpose for them. So I brought a few to work with me. I flipped though the ads and found an image of a woman I liked and started doodling in permanent marker right on the page.
I have always been a doodler ever since elementary school. I used to fill entire sheets of notebook paper with random circles, spirals and swirls and give them away to my friends. So when I started drawing that first day during my lunch break, I used my normal familiar circles and spirals which I had also always incorporated into my acrylic art work. I covered the entire magazine image with marker using the edges of the subject as stopping and starting points for the different styles of spirals and circles. Once finished I stood back and looked at it and realized that I would rather see just the lines without the background magazine image.
That's when I grabbed a few sheets of forgotten vellum left over from the manual drafting days and dug some half used pencils out of my desk drawer and started drawing the next magazine image, again using the edges of the subject to stop and start the lines. But this time I filled the entire page with just pencil. I used different styles of spirals and different line weights to create the image. About two weeks of lunch breaks later the drawing was complete. I knew it was great and that I needed to continue with my discovery.
Since I started drawing in this style I have had several successful art shows and received many raving compliments regarding my work. I have even had return customers and commissions. Many of my art pieces have found homes across the United States, Canada, Spain, Japan and Australia. I am also represented by several galleries in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
What started out as doodling during my lunch break has snow balled into an obsession that I started working on during more than just my lunch break. Collectors began to purchase so many of my drawings that I couldn't keep up with the demand while working a 40 hour a week job. My situation soon became obvious; I had to quit in order to create more art. Leaving my day job has been a bittersweet experience, for without it I never would have discovered my true artist's voice.
