Blazek's solo exhibition opens Saturday, June 18 and continues through July 30, 2016. A signature painting will be chosen as the image of the 2016 Rockport Art Festival poster, which will debut at the reception. Blazek will be signing copies of the poster at the reception.

The original framed work of art will be auctioned at the 2016 Art Auction & Party, held just prior to the Art Festival, on July 1. Posters will be available throughout the 2016 Art Festival July 2-3, and any remaining quantities will be available at the Art Center.

About Joey Blazek:

Born in1954,he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a specialization in graphic design from Lamar University. Following a successful career as a creative director, illustrator, and photographer in advertising for Vance-Mathews, Inc., Blazek started a namesake design firm in the 1980s where he created and produced print and electronic media for clients in Texas and Louisiana. All the while, he continue to explore his love of life drawing and painting.

Immense

Blazek's approach to his art has been greatly influenced by his career as a graphic designer and photographer. Continually arranging photos, type and other elements for his clients gave him a keen awareness of composition. It is a craft that he still uses today shooting reference images for his paintings. Whether coastal wildlife, people on the street or ships at sea, Blazek has learned to seek the composition as it naturally develops in front of his camera, recognize this as a potential painting, and capture it. 

“I think ultimately my work is a product of what I have lived and learned the past 60 or so years. I consider myself primarily a Southern Gulf Coast regional painter.” Blazek focuses on the area’s abundant wildlife and its coexistence with the Gulf Coast’s industrial, marine and agricultural landscape. Frequently he will include some urban pieces from New Orleans or other southern coastal cities and towns.

We'll Keep a Light On

Since he paints what he has spent his life around, he tries to take the ordinary and make it something beautiful. Whether it is a rice dryer, pump jack or cattle egret he tries to see it from a different perspective than most people might see at first glance. “If I am able to take common coastal themes and turn them into something pleasing and interesting on canvas, and special to the viewer, I feel like I have succeeded in my work.”

Long Necks

Blazek’s work is well known to art collectors in Rockport as well as Art Festival visitors. He is represented by Estelle Stair Gallery on Austin Street and he received “Best of Show” honors in the 2013 edition of the Art Festival. Last year, he was selected as poster artist for the Gulf coast Arts Festival in Pensacola, Florida.