John Karam (Kunst)

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Most artists can name a painter, sculptor or teacher that sparked their interest in creating for a living. For John “J.D.” Karam, his mentor was his father. When he was young, his dad painted a series of Native Americans and desert scenes (without formal training). "Those paintings hung in our home while I was growing up," John said. "His natural talent allowed me to believe that I might have some artistic ability as well.” John also credits Mrs. Land, an art teacher at Royal Palm Elementary School in Phoenix, with developing his self-image as an artist through her faith and encouragement. “She took a special interest in me. I felt, in some way, that she admired me,” he said.

One of the most significant figures in John’s early career is the man he credits with discovering him: Clyde Sellers. Mr. Sellers, a national art distributor, took an interest in John’s art and debuted his work at the Art Expo in Los Angeles. John remembers over 100 of his prints sold in a five-day period.

Although he became interested in art at an early age, John majored in psychology as a student at Arizona State University. “It didn’t make sense to me to study art in college – I felt it was about reading and writing,” he remembers. Earning a degree in psychology taught John how to think like a scientist, giving him a “truly objective” approach to his art. His training also serves to provide inspiration for his contemporary abstracts. “The situations and visuals that I observe in life and nature inspire me to help to answer some of the intriguing questions surrounding our everyday lives,” he says.

John feels his life “focuses on art.” He loves what he does and even when he’s not working in his studio he’s doing something art related. In his spare time, he studies dancing (which in the past helped him to study the human form more completely) and teaches both graphic design and two-dimensional design at a local community college. “I hope that both my serious side and my fun side show up in my work—and that the result is an interesting mix,” he said.