Nathan Horner's web - About Nathan Horner

Nathan Horner - New Millennium Hollywood Renaissance Artist

about Nathan Horner

Nathan Horner’s story is a fascinating journey of an American individual/Artist. He was born in East Liverpool, Ohio on February 6, 1967, and was raised by his Mother and Grandmother in Fredericksburg, Virginia with his two sisters. He was the only multi-racial member of his Caucasian family and found his African American family in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown, with the aid of DNA genealogy research.
“I have overcome much adversity.” - Nathan Horner

It was apparent Nathan had a creative gift at an early age. Acknowledged by his teachers and peers as an Artist, he was inspired to further develop his talent. Through his desire to paint and draw, he received many local awards, TV, and press coverage. Influenced by Andrew Wythe, Horner’s early works were done in a Photo Realistic Neo-Folk style using Color Pencils. Broadening his horizons, he was accepted into Parsons American University Paris and New York, but Horner chose to attend United States International University in San Diego. (Note: Nathan was roommates with Thorsten Kaye of “All My Children” fame, and classmates with Academy Award Winner Jamie Foxx who also attended U.S.I.U. School of Performing and Visual Arts there.

As a result of associating with so many creative individuals, the international campus environment and the California Culture, Horner's mind expanded and encouraged his desire to experiment with new ideas. He began to paint in oils developing a style influenced by Edward Hopper, Vincent Van Gogh, and John Singer Sargent. A full-time Painting and Drawing major studying under Netter Worthington, He also painted for the Drama department as a "Scenic Artist." Living in San Diego, he began to surf, and work as a graphic artist for Tony Magnusson and Mike Ternasky of H-Street Skateboards, www.h-street.com working with Artists Scott Obradovich, and Carl Hyndman. (Note: H-Street later became Plan-B Skateboards which then spawned a several other companies. Legendary Vert Skateboarder and entrepreneur Tony Magnusson then created Evol and later Osiris shoes.)

Horner then returned to Virginia in the early 90s due to the illness of his grandmother, who, during this time, passed away with Nathan and his sister at her side. At this time, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA majoring in painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Horner was very prolific during this time and produced many paintings and hosted many social events while living in an old brick four-story storefront warehouse. He was happening in the underground music and art scene. Nathan did some set painting on a GWAR rockumentary movie. Working with local talent, he also developed a film project as an independent study. In 1993, Nathan was awarded elite membership in the scholastic Golden Key International Honor Society in recognition of maintaining a 4.0GPA.

After his Grandmother’s death, Nathan returned to East Liverpool, Ohio, his place of birth, to stay with relatives for a while. He then returned to Richmond, Virginia where he was hired to be a supervisor traveling the United States erecting steel racks for warehouse stores. Tiring of life on the road, missing the surf, weather and a stable place to produce his art, Horner soon found himself back in San Diego.

There, he was commissioned to paint a Tree of Life mural at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe. At this time, he lived in Ocean Beach where he painted his popular “OB Surfside Cottages”. Nathan loved San Diego beach communities, and resided the longest in Pacific Beach, later moving to a Loft in the East Village Downtown San Diego. During this time, he had a rebirth as a painter. Working to survive and create his art became his mantra. Ideally, he needed to find a way to free himself financially so he could become a full-time artist, this sparked his marketing campaign, which continues today. He is known for his seascapes, suburban landscapes, and architectural paintings in the AMERICAN MODERNIST tradition.

In 2001, and a couple of years after, Horner donated a painting to be auctioned off to benefit the Surfrider Foundation. The print of his oil painting of the Old Point Loma/Cabrillo Lighthouse was approved by the National Park Service and is now being sold at The Cabrillo National Monument gift shop in Point Loma.

In 2004, three of his paintings were chosen for the “The Real World: San Diego” house. The MTV reality show was filmed in Point Loma, and all over San Diego, California and was broadcast around the world.

Horner’s prints were sold in La Jolla, and all over San Diego, and may be ordered from the artist. His L.A. Icons postcards had been carried in choice stores in Los Angeles.

Nathan has been an active member of many organizations including The La Jolla Art Association and the San Diego Museum of Art Artist's Guild, the Hollywood Arts Council and The New York Artists' Fellowship.

In 2007, two of his paintings were published in “The Land of Sunlight”. A book by James Lightner of 100 Contemporary Southern California Fine Artists.

Horner now lives in Hollywood, California and works full-time for Imagic, a Printing, and Graphics Company in Burbank. He intends to continue being a recognized figure contributing to the culture and visual history of Southern California, Hollywood, and where lifes travels take him.

Nathan has shown and sold in LACMA: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Sales and Rental Gallery. In the fall of 2005, he had an exhibit at The Hollywood Arclight Cinemas, selling paintings to Director Wes Craven and other Film Industry Executives. He has since had exhibits at The Arclight Cinemas in Sherman Oaks, La Jolla, and Pasadena, California. You may see his original artwork in prominent galleries and collections around the world.

Nathan became the first artist from California ever invited to exhibit at The Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY the childhood home of Edward Hopper.

August 28th - October 10th 2010, 82 North Broadway, Nyack, New York.

Please see the Home page of this site to see a list of current and past exhibits, in the upper right side of the page.

Horner lives in Hollywood, California and works full-time for a large format graphic printing company in Burbank. He is also a recognized Inventor, being awarded a Patent Sept. of 2018 for a medical device, The Tarsus Eyelid Patch, and he has founded a medtech startup, see www.nictavi.com. Nathan continues to be a recognized figure contributing to the culture and the visual history of Southern California, Hollywood, and wherever life's travels take him.

‎"When I am dead and gone, the only color that will represent me will be the color on my canvases."

-Nathan Horner

BEHIND THE ARTISTS SHADES

If you've wondered why I am always wearing shades in my pictures, here's why. Though there are times when I do not wear them, I do feel more comfortable interacting with people with my shades on. I don't have to explain things to everyone. It also seems they have become part of my image. But here goes, I feel it's better to let people know than to have them speculate.

In 1994, I incurred a scar on the cornea of my left eye. I painted and lived with minimal vision and pain in that eye for years. I had a cornea transplant in San Diego in 2002, but it had problems healing though I was, and am, in great health. After moving to Los Angeles in 2004, I went to a couple of eye doctors and then was referred to Dr. Anthony Aldave, MD at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. I had a couple of other procedures and cornea transplants over the years, all of which had complications healing the surface completely, leaving the eye open to infections. Dr. Aldave found that my eye had a healing issue that was due to damaged stem cells on the surface of the cornea. With present technology, there is nothing they can do to heal the natural cornea, though they are close. After an infection in my left eye in the fall of 2007 that almost cost me my eye, Dr. Aldave said I had to get an artificial cornea or I would most likely get another infection. So in 2008, I had the surgery. I can now see 20/20 though there is a slight difference in the vision and the color of the eyes. The left is light blue due to trauma to the tissue. I can see and I am not in pain. For an Artist, Light and Sight are everything. This has been, and is, a humbling enlightening experience to go through. Soon the advances in stem cell technology will enable the Dr.’s to remove the artificial cornea under which is my natural brown color, then via donor cornea or some other advancement, my natural sight and appearance will be restored. Until then, I am the Robo Artist in Prada's, and it just so happens that when the light hits it, a ring in it lights up like an eclipse. I only enhanced that effect in these photos. Look closely at the artificial cornea. It is hi-tech. So if you didn't know. It's more drama for the story of my life and journey as an Artist. I am now a recognized Inventor, being awarded a Patent in Sept. of 2018 for a medical device, The Tarsus Eyelid Patch, and he has also founded a Medtech startup, see www.nictavi.com.

Photos by: Javier Valdez

url: javiervaldez.la

Artist Statement NATHAN PAUL HORNER
Individual- Artistic- Creative- Expression

Signing my work Nhorner, I was a surrealist in the very early stages of artistic development, through High School I became a pure realist. Using color pencils and mixed media I created photo-realistic highly detailed works from life drawings and photographic compositions. Being very passionate, poetic, and philosophical, I sometimes expressed deeper meaning in my titles and sometimes with the subject matter. In college, I was exposed to more art and art history. At this time my influences and path of artistic development began to be evident. My work began to emulate Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, and Edward Hopper. I began to paint in oils as the masters of impressionism, loosening my techniques, painting with less concern for detail, allowing the paint in all of its manifestations to convey my painterly illusion of a realistic image. The painting becoming its own reality, a product of the creative process. As a contemporary artist, I am inspired by the substance of life, emotions, a muse, and my surroundings. Southern California and Mexico offer beautiful subject matter. Each painting is passionately, romantically and energetically executed, each descriptive brushstroke a bold deliberate respected flowing action. After the point of inspiration, the execution of the work becomes a game of chess. I am a unique individual in time and space, documenting my worldview/existence via creating original oil paintings, which will echo my existence through time for generations to come.

WATER VESSEL ( A peom by Nathan Paul Horner 1994)

What does one drop in the ocean signify? A splash gone in a flash.
The tide is high under the pier of the fear of your self?
All is well when there is the swell of self-confidence.
A Bigots Creed is flesh for the flow of the blood of greed, Chum for the Great Whites of ignorance.
The morning brings the wind to fill the sails of your soul. Lift anchor and sail the uncharted seas of experience.
The Cyclops of self is the eye of the storm on the ocean of the General public.
Every morning brings a hurricane warning.
Fathom the idea of individualism.
Let the light of love shine on and through you, displaying the Prism of Self-expression. Just another drip on my own trip, on a cruise trough time, all aboard the Titanic.
The Whirlpool of social Politics brings many down, yet The Creative Storm draws many up in The Waterspout of Consciousness, to later rain down on The deserts and waste lands of drought souls.

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