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Untitled by Taneya Lovelace

Gordon Shepard

Click on the following icons to view artwork by Gordon Shepard:

  • Circus Cart
  • Clown Playing Guitar
  • Clowns
  • Dennis Richmond
  • Healthy Habits
  • Side Show
Gordon Shepard
Gordon Shepard

Born in New York City in 1930, Gordon Shepard was raised in an artistic family and has been performing and making visual art his entire life. Shepard’s father, Otis Shepard, was a well-known commercial artist and art director of the Wrigley Company for thirty years. He has been an artist at Creativity Explored’s second studio since 2000.

Shepard creates exclusively representational drawings and paintings, using acutely accurate perspective and shading, and saturated colors. From acrobats to clowns to striped tents, the common theme running through all of his artwork is the circus. Shepard was once a clown in Big John Strong & Sons circus and he loves to reminisce about his days as a performer. When he isn’t talking about clowns, he is visually exploring the theme in all manner of media. In 2002 he created a sculptural rendition of a circus sideshow, meticulously executed on 1/12 scale, taking him over a year to complete. Shepard recently became the subject of a documentary film appropriately titled Clown (2007).

Selected Exhibitions

  • 2008

    • Quarter Century, Creativity Explored

  • 2007

    • Super Heroes Super Villains, Creativity Explored
    • SF Notables Portrait Auction, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
    • Seeing Memory, Creativity Explored
    • AccessAbility, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito, CA

  • 2006

    • Mischief, Studio Gallery, San Francisco
    • SF Notables Portrait Auction, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco
    • The Beat Goes On, Creativity Explored
    • Sacred Places, Creativity Explored
    • Vessels, Creativity Explored

  • 2005

    • Revenge of Monster, Creativity Explored
    • The Pink Show, Creativity Explored

  • 2004

    • Don’t Call Me Retard, SF Public Library
    • Sprout Film Festival, NYU Cantor Arts Center, New York City
    • Critters, Creativity Explored
    • You Are Here, Creativity Explored

the workspace of Marietta Canoza, studio artist