ABOUT PULINAT

Based in New York, John Pulinat works full time from his studio in Floral Park, Queens. The diversity of his life and professional experience has given John Pulinat a unique and perhaps unconventional perspective on the world of fine art. His areas of creations are in illustration, digital images, computer graphics, moving images and fine art painting. John Pulinat completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from FIT, State University of New York with honors (cum laude). Post-graduation, he started his freelance artistic career while continuing studies in digital media. He has developed an expertise in mediums such as watercolor, oil paint, gauche, acrylic and ink and also has mastered digital and manual drafting. Expanding upon computer skills, he took several digital courses in Photoshop, Illustrator, in design, Quark, Painter, After Effects, Director, HTML, and Dream Weaver, Video editing with Final cut pro, motion, sound track etc.

John is the youngest child born to Annamma and V Kuriakose Pulinat. In Kerala South India, a land of palm trees, year-round sunshine, and monsoons, Pulinat has been drawing since he was old enough to hold a pencil. While he enjoyed being outdoors in nature, he also loved to draw and paint, and create his own little books.

Middle school math books and language books were the first drawing surface, school teachers were annoyed! One day his math teacher removed him from the classroom because he drew in the math notebook. While he was standing out side the door, the school headmaster passed by with his stick and asked him the reason for standing outside, and John fearfully and tearfully explained. The headmaster told him to come after school to his office. John returned to the classroom horrified and fantasized about what was going to happen after school. He went to the office with shivering legs. The head master took him to another room, where a table held an arrangement of flowers, and he was assigned to draw that. Every teacher was very much impressed with his drawing, and the headmaster mounted that picture on the office wall. Also, he told John that the school drawing competition was coming, and that he must apply for it. Because of the pressure John sat for the competition and won first prize. After that he represented the school in district and state level competitions and made lots of points for the school. He was a hero with his fellow students and teachers. That was a birth of an artist.

After high school, he successfully finished a five year course in fine art from Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts,Mavelikara, Kerala, India. Soon after, he became active in the art field and his creative expressions were exhibited throughout Kerala, India. He was commissioned to do hundreds of portraits. He worked as an art teacher in state government high school and Navodaya central school system. His work is represented in many private and gallery collections. The land of spirit (series A and B) he did around the time of his immigration to the USA. The US consulate in Madras commissioned him to do water color paintings based on Kerala subject matter. In 1991, he married Daisy, who worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia. She passed the nursing examination and got a US work visa to the USA, and both together immigrated to the United States.

They left everything in India and trusted in Almighty God, and looked forward to the land of opportunity. By God's grace, the avenues opened. In the beginning his life was diverse in the states, but he stayed grounded through his art career. He enrolled in FIT in 1995 and continued his studies in fine art. He completed his bachelor’s degree in 2000. Expanding his computer skills, he took several digital courses in Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, Quark, Painter, After Effects, Director, HTML, and Dream Weaver, Motion, movie editing with Final cut pro, etc. focusing on Photoshop to create digital imagery. Creating art work in this new digital medium has broadened his scope and enhanced his vision.

ARTIST PERSONAL STATEMENT

What drives me to create is as mysterious to me as it is fascinating. I just know that I have to do it. Creativity, for me, takes on many forms; paintings, illustrations, making digital moving images, graphics and photography, as they are jointly intertwined. Art is not merely aesthetic awareness. It is visual analysis and thought. Above all, it is an expression of the idea as it meshes with time, space - environment and relationships. Color, composition, texture, space and movement confirm intelligent thought.

GENERAL THOUGHT

The French poet, writer, artist, and film maker Jean Maurice Eugene Clement Cocteau once said, "An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture". In a majority of cases there seems to be a great disconnect between the words and the work. The most articulate and the most revealing statement an artist can make about his work is the work itself. The work will either confirm or contradict the words and ultimately speak louder than the words.

Another point that is so subjective that it is often difficult to identify is that all paintings do not reach the level that can be considered fine art. Assuming that the painter has a good grasp of design theory and has a reasonable mastery of his or her chosen medium, there is still an element that often makes a painting simply a pretty picture and not a work of art. Expressed in the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, "He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist".