Aaron Petersen researched all the Bay Area’s art schools, but was most impressed with California College of the Arts. “I felt like a lot of the other schools were loosey-goosey,” he laughs. He enrolled at CCA because of its stalwart first-year core curriculum required of entering students.

Petersen believes that CCA exposed him to a variety of skills and offered a diverse faculty, which enabled him to better define his voice as an artist. “I wanted to learn as much as I could and I liked that you got to study a lot of the different disciplines and figure out what you wanted to do,” he says.

Initially drawn to CCA’s Furniture Program, Petersen branched out and took a few painting classes and, as he says, “fell in love with it.” He chose painting because it was the most challenging medium to grasp. “I did stuff in the 3D departments and I had fun, but nothing challenged me as much as making a two-dimensional painting. It kept me involved in my head, and it still does,” he explains.

Peterson continued to developed his painting practice, yet other courses in a variety of departments also piqued his interest. “You can get a lot of different takes on how to use your mind creatively to solve problems,” he explains.

He defines his CCA education as a creative education, not a painting education. In fact, today he uses many of the creative problem-solving skills he learned at CCA, even those outside of the arts. “After graduation I was running a furniture designing company and I used the problem-solving skills that I learned at CCA,” he says. “That to me was the biggest gold nugget that I took away from my education.”

Petersen recalls the early morning drawing classes with CCA Painting/Drawing faculty member Larry McClary, which were held in the Carriage House on the Oakland campus, as some of his fondest CCA memories. “As sleepy students stumbled into class with their giant cups of coffee,” Petersen recalls, “McClary would blow our minds with his teaching.” He was part of a core group of students who took nearly every class McClary taught because of his impressive teaching style and philosophy. Petersen keeps in touch with many of his CCA peers.

Since his CCA graduation Petersen has steadily worked as a painter. His artwork has been featured in New American Paintings magazine (“40 Artists You Should Know!”) and reviewed in numerous other noteworthy publications, including Artweek, Art Ltd., The Boston Globe, SF Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle, and ArtBusiness.com, among others.

Recent solo exhibitions include Flicker Series, at Pamela Skinner / Gwenna Howard / Contemporary Art (Sacramento); Domicile, at Ruth Bachofner Gallery (Santa Monica), and Inhabited, at Braunstein/Quay Gallery (San Francisco).

“I am really intrigued, in an abstract sense, by living in an urban environment and how the energy and movement interacts with the natural world that surrounds it,” says Petersen, describing the philosophy behind his work. “In the Bay Area I was really influenced by the clouds and the water and how that meets the craziness of the city and technology.”

“It’s a dream come true,” he says of the fact he paints everyday. “Every day I wake up and say how lucky I am. It’s a ton of work, but I would say it’s my proudest achievement.”

Born in 1971 in Denver

CCA degree:
BFA 1998, Painting

Residence:
Santa Rosa, California

Current occupation:
Painter

Influences at CCA:
Judy Foosaner, Larry McClary, Marilyn da Silva

Website:
www.aaronpetersenart.com