James Gurney is an Artist Blessed with both the skills to recreate moments
of history with scientific accuracy, and the ability to imagine fantastic
realms with a wealth of detail. This combination of talents has resulted
in the creation of "Dinotopia", a land where humans and dinosaurs
live in peaceful interdependence. "Ever since my parents first set
me in a sandbox, " he says, "it has been my dream to create
a world... not just a pretty-looking castle, but a whole world, complete
in every detail - so real that I could step across Dinotopia is the answer
to that dream."
Gurney first presented Dinotopia, "The Land Apart From Time",
in a series of prints and posters. As he developed the Museum of Natural
History in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. "I
think of my work as 'Imaginative Realism'," Gurney says. "I
want to make things as believable as possible."
Gurney has done extensive work with historic realism. While pursuing
a B.A. in anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, he
assisted at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, making exact drawings of
Egyptian artifacts. His studies continued at the Pasadena Art Center
College of Design, and then he embarked on a two-year odyssey, traveling
across America armed with a Sketchbook and a tape recorder. When Gurney
finally returned to California, he pursued his dream of combining real
and imaginary worlds. He painted backgrounds for the animated sword and
sorcery feature film. "Fire and Ice" (1983) and created artistic
representation of ancient worlds for National Geographic magazine's articles
on archaeology. All of this led him to a career in fine art.
Print shown:
The Excursion |
