Giovanni Gulley

I'm a 30 year old self taught artist from Detroits Eastside of town. My name is Giovanni I grew up with art all around from seeing murals in the Eastern Market living a few miles away from the Hiedelberg Project, and going to the D.I.A was a every activity when the time permitted.  I always have been inspired by Basquiat, Ernie Barnes, and Picasso to name a couple. I grew up watching my dad illustrate architectural type sketches and watched my aunt customize clothing accessories for small children. I guess growing up and subconsciously seeing these things often rubbed off on me and my art style today. A lot of my aunt custom works included the likes on Mickey Mouse, Flinstone characters and a list of other adding sequence and rhinestones before it was popular or sold online. I also developed and learned different art styles thru classes in high school. 

In 2016 I began my journey as a serious artist. I remember my 1st art piece I did on clothing was a blue jean vest with work from Kaws when he worked on Kanye West album cover . The work inspired me to make a vest that came out terrible because I didn't know what I was doing. Selling that vest motivated me to practice, study, and research the process. After selling a few canvas pieces and successful sales of sweatshirt work I decided to rent out a art studio that eventually  became home and my new place of business.  While there I was challenged and got offers to paint other things I never tried which forced me to diversify and challenge myself to doing shoes, hats, jackets, pants, etc.  Today I'm still learning networking and developing my craft and still getting excitement embarking on this never ending journey to be one of the most respected artists from Detroit and beyond.