“I’m an old guy with a young heart,” is how Goochland artist Gary Garbett chooses to describes himself.

Well, not so old. He’s just 50, but he took a couple decades off from school to raise a family before finishing his education.

A student at VCU from 1983 to 1986, he left school to work full-time in advertising as a graphic designer.

“Struggling artist – there’s some real truth to that,” he remarked during an interview last week at his studio at his Goochland home.

In 2006 he went back to school. In 2008 he received a Career Studies Certificate in Photography from J. Sargeant Reynolds and a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Study from Virginia Commonwealth University.

While still working full-time at VCU for the Technology Services Division, where he’s “the marketing and advertising guy,” Garbett is finishing up his Masters Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.

His thesis exhibition is entitled “insequential sequence.”

“Going back to school was the best thing I ever did,” said Garbett, as he looked through 80 or so pieces from which he’ll choose 35 or 40 to hang at his show at the Rawls Museum Arts Gallery in Courtland, Va. near Suffolk. “I love being in the educational environment.”

Born in Richmond, with a father in the Navy, Garbett was “a military brat.”

After a number of moves, he ended up back in the Richmond area, graduating from Highland Springs High School.

He and his wife Karen, a registered nurse, have three grown children.

The exhibit opens September 18 and will hang until November 18. An opening reception is scheduled for 6 – 8 p.m. on opening day.

Garbett’s thesis exhibit is subtitled “A mixed media capture of ordinary truths.”

He lists his influences as pop culture, the nightly news, advertisements, pulp magazines, film and music.

While working and raising a family, Garbett found time to show his work in a number of exhibitions, starting in 1992.

Garbett said the name came from a personal project he was working on.

“I wanted to make groupings out of the images,” he explained. “It’s like putting a puzzle together, it begins to tell a story,” said the artist.

Nostalgia figures prominently in his work, as evidenced by one piece that will be in the exhibit called “Reflections.” It features three elements: a photo of an old car, a Brownie camera and its reflection and a figure.

Garbett will be hanging the show this week preparing for the September 18 opening.

Garbett’s garage/studio is also filled with nostalgia. One prominent piece is the hood from 1956 Ford with a pop-art style portrait of Marilyn Monroe. It’s the last piece from his “Route 66 Revisited” exhibit of 1991.

One of the pieces from that exhibit now hangs in the gallery at the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, said Garbett.

To find out more about Garbett and his upcoming exhibition, visit his website at www.garygarbett.com

Photo by Ken Odor
Goochland artist Gary Garbett looks through some of he pieces he will hang at his thesis exhibition, “insequential sequence,” which will open September 18 at Rawls Museum Arts in Courtland, Va.