Gregory's Art Show

GREGORY  MAIRE: STUDIES IN COLOR & FORM

THE GALLERY AT LINCOLNWOOD VILLAGE HALL - JULY 17, 2012

Gregory Maire is a retired architect and interior designer. His homes and design can be seen on Chicago’s Gold Coast, throughout the suburbs of the North Shore, as far as Saudi Arabia, in his role of architect of record for the renovations at the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, and as designer of the Baha’i Center in Nashville.   

Gregory received his BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, his MA from Harvard, and was Phi Beta Kappa. He was active in many professional organizations, on professional Boards, and presented graduate student workshops.

It is said of Alzheimer's that new learning connections cannot take place, but Gregory is still working at and succeeding in making new connections while the old ones fail. He is calm, methodical, easy, and quite intelligent which perhaps accounts for the very slow decline of his abilities over the last ten years since the diagnosis of Young Onset Alzheimer's at age 55.

In 2009, with Nancy Rosen (www.nrosen.com) as artist/teacher/mentor/friend, Gregory began oil painting. In a little over the brief period of two years, he has created over eighty works of art. His current work has been included in a show of ten artists in Evanston, Illinois and as part of a two-person show in Chicago.

It might be said that Gregory is an “Outsider Artist” but the connections, which despite the dementia, he is rebuilding in this new artistic endeavor include: his past education and experience in architecture and interior design; his creative nature, eye for color, and awareness of scale; and his past maestro-level abilities in classical music on the piano.

His work is abstract so it seems to come more from the pure intent of his heart rather than from his intellect or head. As Nancy Rosen, an amazingly prolific successful artist, has said, "Art works well here because language is not necessary." She says that Gregory is one of the few artists she has met who intuitively knows when he is ready to begin painting and when he is finished with each piece of art on which he works.

He lives in Evanston, Illinois with his life partner Michael. (m@horvich.com)