"Chase Burning.Gif" by Alex Schaefer

@PaintwithAlex

Alex Schaefer was born in Los Angeles, California in 1969 and studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Upon graduation he spent 8 years as an artist in the video game industry, working first for Disney Interactive, then became the team that made the game Spyro the Dragon 1,2 & 3. After the digital world moved on to teach foundation Painting, Drawing and Composition at the Art Center for 12 years. In 2011 Schaefer gained international recognition for his art with a series of banks on fire in protest of financial crimes. His main influences are the painterly “old masters”, the early French Impressionists and the San Francisco Bay area figurative and abstract artists of the 1950’s and the London School. Find links to see more art online at www.paintwithalex.com

This was the 2nd Plein air bank painting and the one that got me stopped by the police and then later questioned by investigators. It started the whole fury off and was the zeitgeist of 2011. Three weeks after this painting chased a global stir, Occupy Wall Street began and there was a moment of awakening and protest that I hope will begin again soon. A “Plein air” painting is one where the artist takes their equipment and canvas right out into the streets and paints right on the spot.