Won
21 prizes in my lifetime to date; in 50 years of painting,
from various gallery shows in the United States—First
national gallery was the Hackley Gallery of Muskegon, Michigan
(1915). Started my study as a student at the Chicago Academy
of Fine Arts (age 15) then the Chicago Art Institute, Art
Students League, Cooper Institute, Philadelphia Academy, Woodstock
School of Painting, John F. Carlson for Landscape, Izra Winters
and Wellington Reynolds for figure, Robert Henri, for still
life, Walter Chute Studio, Chicago, Fursman Studio, Cape Cod
Colony of Artists, and others in private classes.
Taught
art for thirty years, private instruction for beginner or advanced,
and have some 500 or more students in America who have made
a profession that turned from hobby. Classes in Chicago, New
York, Desplains, Ill., New Jersey, Texas, Los Angeles, Glendale,
San Francisco, and Kentfield in California. Discontinued teaching
in 1939—but never gave up helping anyone who came or comes
to my door for assistance.
Painted
many years in the Indian Reservations—learning the people,
language, moral code of ethics. I have for posterity a collection
of watercolors, which I use in lectures for clubs etc., (Arizona
and New Mexico). Lectured for a long period of time for Mary
MacDowell Foundation Clubs in various states.
My mediums are oils, watercolors, gouaches, opaques, etchings,
dry points, pastels, wood blocks, and wood carving.
Have
always had my own studio and gallery. Early member of Palette
and Chisel Club of Chicago; Brush and Pen Club, Chicago; Kit
Kat Club, New York; Beach Combers, N.Y.; Art Students League,
Chicago and New York; Salamagundi Club and Cape Cod Colony of
Artists. By my suggestion in Chicago “Friends of American
Art” became a reality through Mrs. Josephine Logan—American
Society of Artists, Chicago Society of Western Artists and Western
Art Academy Foundation Gallery Studio in Marin County, California,
where the walls contain some forty or more paintings—maintaining
an open house to all.
Some
25 years ago in my life I found by observation of others who
were successful, that to achieve greatness or stability or balance
one had to go only one inch beyond mediocrity, but that one
inch is so hard to go that only those who became aware of God
can make the grade, for no one can ever hope to achieve that
one inch alone. Upon advice of others and desires of my own
I studied various religions. Just a short study of the Bible
proved to me that there was a power unseen and unheard, that
directed all.
So
to improve learning I studied applied psychology at the University
of Southern California that I use today to help others, and
to guide myself. The knowledge was priceless. I learned to cross
the threshold of my studio with reverence, as though I were
entering a shrine set apart for me. This same reverence accompanies
me at all times where I contact any part of nature that seems
suited for that days work. Again this same love of people and
reverence assists me in the help that is asked by those who
seek what I can give.
There
are five things in life that we all possess and should be in
every thinking mind. They are humility, reverence, inspiration,
deep purpose, and joy. They combine to make you just as great
as you will make use of them.
Go
alone into a vast forest, alone on the desert wastelands—far
enough where no human voice is heard or noises may be evident.
Sit down an hour or so. Think, see the millions of thoughts
that will come, do not question their source, commune with that
unseen power. Ideas will arise, inspirations will multiply one
after one a new world opens its portals to thought. See the
myriads of growth, see how little you know by name, and how
the flowers all face the sunlight and the blue heaven, and like
we, they are here today and gone tomorrow. But the radiance
of singular beauty will never leave that receptive mind, but
will return time and time again in parables of comparative joy,
reverence, inspiration, humility, and purpose. Therein lies
the work of God alone, with his greatest admirer, you, to behold.
Let us not fail, but go onward and upward, and endeavor to leave
behind us deeds, works and actions that those who follow can
take as comparative examples, for they will, by this lesson,
improve on our best. Let's all be bound by that beautiful bond
of friendship and servitude. I thank you.
George
Demont Otis, Feb., 1948
