Roark Gourley is an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

, and mixed media artist in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and ...

noted for wall sculptures that depict humorous subject matter. In 1992, the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History commissioned ''Spaghetti Meets Tomato in the Collision of the Continental Plates'', a high relief map of the world with depictions of various foods making up the topography and borders of countries.OC Metro's Hot 25 2003
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Career

Roark was born in Lynwood, California. He received his art training at Orange Coast College, The Art Institute of Southern California Laguna Beach and the University of Colorado where he studied electronic optics, physics, holography, and photography. Roark specializes in 2.5 dimensional wall sculptures made from wood, resin, and acrylic, often depicting humorous scenarios: pets that match sofas, an out of control executive with 4 arms, chefs cooking up a storm and other whimsical subject matter including, hearts, martinis, shoes, and coffee cups. He ran The Sherwood Gallery in Laguna Beach from 1979 to 1988. In the 1980s Roark created several 2.5 dimensional pieces for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

depicting their characters in humorous scenarios, including his ''Daffy Executive'' and ''Golfer Taz''. In addition to light-hearted work, Roark painted portraits of his friends and family . He told Dawn Pettit of ''

Orange Coast Magazine ''Orange Coast'' is an American lifestyle magazine published for the Orange County, California region. Established in February 1974, ''Orange Coast'' is the oldest continuously published lifestyle magazine in the region. ''Orange Coast'' includ ...

'' that his most favorite pieces are the two portraits of his wife that are displayed in his Laguna Beach home. In 2007 he debuted his B-Side, a more serious body of abstract contemporary work featuring light paintings, underwater photography, and 3D Abstract sculpture printed on both traditional and nontraditional materials (plexi-glass and metal).

Projects

The Liquescent Project

Liquescent is becoming liquid. We come from, are made of, and consume liquid. Water is an integral part of who we are. With breakthrough footage Roark is exploring and rediscovering this underwater world. Liquescent takes you on a journey back to our

essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

and the aesthetic beauty within. Liquescent is a short film/documentary that showcase underwater footage of the human form in a liquid environment. By exploring the beautiful local water around Southern California, this pilot film is a treatment to promote a larger Liquescent film. It brings awareness of site specific local water’s beauty and need to preserve. The film is used to further funding for Liquescent II. The pilot film has been shown in local galleries, museums, hotels, art/film festivals, on the internet, and on local television to a broad audience. Liquescent captures the link between our world’s water and humanity, ultimately transcending them as one. With the use of modern media techniques, Roark has developed his own proprietary lighting style known as Liquescent. While this style appears at times to be out of focus Roark coins it as out of time. “Typically photography is a snapshot of reality, a split second of time. Instead what I am capturing is a window of time-continuous movement from point A to B, in a world of no gravity.” Liquescent allows you to see what the naked eye can not- movement that is fluid, flowing, unrestricted and graceful. As the beauty unfolds the human form transcends, becoming liquid. The film will reveal this ground breaking technology as well.
Liquescent Project on FaceBookRoark Studio on FaceBook

Smithsonian Seeds of Change Exhibition

In 1992 Roark Gourley was invited to create a work of art by the heads of The Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, Herman J. Viola, and Carolyn Margolis for the upcoming "Seeds of Change" exhibit. The exhibit was to commemorate the 5th centennial of Columbus discovering the Americas. The exhibit was an attempt to interpret the true meaning of Columbus' voyage and both the negative and positive consequences that followed. The exhibit is named for five "seeds": corn, potatoes, sugar, diseases and horses that through their roles in initiating changes 500 years ago shaped the course of human history in the Americas and altered the lives of people around the world. ''Spaghetti Meets Tomato'' was commissioned by the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

to capture the biological and cultural impacts of the encounter between Old and New Worlds. Roark's piece was to tell the story of how the spaghetti met the tomato in a humorous way. The result was a 10'x10'x5' high relief map of the world with depictions of various foods making up the topography and borders of countries.

The Foark Tour

In 1999 Roark launched his infamous guerrilla art project, "Forks by Roark". He gathered a team of art students and planted several over-sized brightly colored

forks In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods eit ...

into off-limits

Laguna Beach City Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

soil across the street from the annual Festival of the Arts. The purpose of the project he claimed was to amuse people with "giant, unauthorized floating untensils" Not only did the project amuse, it also poked fun at the absurdities of the system. After several unauthorized "Foarking" stints in the

Laguna Canyon Laguna Canyon (also called Cañada de las Lagunas, meaning "Lake Canyon" in Spanish) is a canyon that cuts through the San Joaquin Hills in southern Orange County, California, in the United States, directly south of the city of Irvine. The ca ...

, "Team Foark" was officially invited by several cities around the country to get "Foarked". The first stop was Portland, Oregon where Roark's Foarks graced the elegant grounds of the historic

Pittock Mansion The Pittock Mansion is a French Renaissance-style château in the West Hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. The mansion was originally built in 1914 as a private home for London-born '' Oregonian'' publisher Henry Pittock and his wife, Geor ...

. A reception was hosted for the "Foark Team" at the First Avenue Gallery. Other locations included the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

Edinburg Children's Hospital Installation

In February 2006, Roark Gourley worked with The Edinburg Children's Hospital to create a light-hearted environment for children suffering from terminal illnesses. He worked with the hospital to create a jungle themed environment that would feel more like a play room than a hospital.Charlene Rodriguez ''Artist Gives Kids Joy'', The Edinburg Review: Weekender May 26–28, 2006