My name is Chase Perry. I live in Fredericksburg, Texas with my wife Jill, my daughter Ava, and our Jack Russell Terrier. When I was about 8 or 9 my Mother realized I could draw. She knew a lovely artist named Virginia Greenwood and asked her if she would teach me to paint. She did, and I still love Sap Green and watching hummingbirds because of my time painting with her.
I studied oil painting and sculpture at the Academy of Art, San Francisco, where I graduated with distinction in the winter of 2004. This was a challenging environment directed by brilliant, internationally respected artists. They would critique your work with honesty. I thought I was good when I arrived my first day of class, and on my way home that evening I knew I had much to learn. Talent is merely a head start on one’s way to where they want to go. I loved my time at the Academy. I recognize how fortunate I was to be a student there.
I want to thank my Mother, who recognized that I had something worth nurturing, and supported me unwaveringly in the development of that gift.
I believe fine art happens in that beautiful realm where Jazz improvisations are also found. There are rules in this dimension that one must adhere to, but those who invest the work can learn to empower those rules. Rules that can be enlisted as passageways to set one free. Now, as someone in their mid-forties, I can still experience the sublime freedom when painting that I had on a skateboard as a teenager. Not unlike the tranquility of a silent film that one can enter on a roadbike when the wind’s at their back. That’s an amazing thing. By way of painting you can bend time.
My creative influences are, foremost, John Singer Sargent: both confidence, and power. A master unsurpassed as a painter. Truly. I love Rodin. Wilco's album A Ghost is Born is a masterpiece. Elliott Smith. Jonny Greenwood, and Bob Dylan. Nels Cline, Monet, and El Greco. Antonio Mancini and Nicolai Fechin. Sergei Prokofiev. Ennio Morricone. Morricone is a genius. His music is so frequent interlaced through my memories. Alexander McQueen. Jack Kerouac and Cormac McCarthy. A. A. Milne. Chet Baker. Camille Saint-Saens, and there are so many others. I mention all of these because if you are not yet acquainted with them, you should look at their work. They have endeavored to create something beautiful, and I believe they were successful.
You don’t have to be a painter to inspire one. You can hear a painting in a song.
"Half of it's you. Half is me." -Jeff Tweedy