A business man at heart, and an artist at night. This best describes Herbert Horatio Simmons, better known in the art world as Herbie. He was born in California, but raised in Washington, D.C., Lafayette, Louisiana, Pasadena, California, and Atlanta, Georgia. He is a product of John Muir High School in Pasadena, California and of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Herbie returned to Pasadena in 1993 to make it his home. Being constantly exposed to the artwork in his father’s collection in addition to meeting a variety of people and living in different places with various cultures and forms of artistic expression, gives Herbie the boundless, open-minded perspective that perpetuates all his artistic endeavors.
A fascination with the unknown future is a driving force behind his abstract, innovative, colorful, and at times, spiritual artwork. The uncertainty of what lies ahead and the constant reaching out to achieve and go forward while freezing thoughts in time is what motivates each of Herbie’s creations. He works primarily in acrylics, taking a blank canvas and turning it into a visual whirlwind of emotion. He uses a myriad of colors to represent the many different races of the world. Herbie suggests that there is beauty in each color and that all people have the ability to come together and function as one. |
