Biography - About Harry Gruenert Born: May 17, 1955 Place: Aachen, Germany Educated: Nine years in Volksschule, four years in Lehre (German trade school) Trade: Bauschlosser (metal) Passions: Woodwork, Plains Indian art, archery, classical music, Web design Harry came to the U.S. in 1983: "I was drawn to the American West, and especially the arts of Native Americans. I first stayed in a cattle ranch in Northeast Nevada. I worked a bit as a cowboy there. I rode horses, fed bulls and built fences." Harry moved to Washington, where he worked as a logger, then drifted down to San Francisco, where he took up carpentry and stuck with it. He now lives across the San Francisco Bay, in El Cerrito, just north of the university town of Berkeley, where he continues to build furniture, remodel homes and paint: "I started painting on Feb. 20th, 2002. My back was aching. For some time my construction work had been getting harder. For a couple of years, actually, I had been thinking that sooner or later I needed a new kind of work. I was making wood frames for a painter in the Bay Area for a while and one day I thought why not paint myself. I went to an art-supply store and bought one stretch canvas and some acrylic paints and brushes. Then I went home and started painting." Harry recalls being "excited, obsessive, I couldn't stop. For the next three weeks I painted every day. I started buying bigger canvases. Some of my early works I painted over. The artist for whom I make the frames – Michael Shemchuk – encouraged me. He gave me pointers on style, direction, and color. He warned me against judging myself too harshly. He helped me to accept an approach that came naturally to me, but which I liked the least because the approach seemed effortless to me. I was under the misconception that a good painting is only the one you work hard and long on. The ones that come easy, and quickly, cannot be that good. Or so I thought at first. Michael set me straight on that. You have to support what comes best to you." He paints without a plan. "When I start my work, I basically have no idea where I am going," he says. "I like to jump into a situation and work my way from the inside out. I like improvisation." His paintings are raw, colorful, abstract and daring, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock's early works and even certain Cubist and Surrealist paintings from earlier in the last century. "I believe in expression without words," he says. "I'm not comfortable talking about my paintings and maybe I never will be." He does not see in the world the images on his canvases: "I like to paint about a different world. A world I don't know exists, but a world I want to portray." Painting is a mystery to him, and he wonders if it always will be: "There is a lot I can't explain."