Joshua Trembly, a UW alumnus, is a local artist working to blend aspects of realism, surrealism and fantasy in his own form of the visionary art style.
“This art is based on people’s mental images in response to a story or something like that,” Trembly said. “You have to use realism in visionary art, like maybe human subjects, but also stuff you wouldn’t see in the real world like vibrant colors or abstracts.”
While at the university, Trembly was an undeclared undergraduate and did not discover his passion for art until the second semester of his Sophomore year.
“I had been trying to draw every day in my own time leading up to that,” Trembly said. “To me, reading a textbook is more of a grind whereas art is more of a practice, I would rather be doing art all the time.”
Trembly said that from there, he completely dedicated himself to the study and practice of art, including a variety of art studio classes.
“With art, you can really immerse yourself in it enough to where you’re exercising your intellect and you can apply that with your practice,” Trembly said.
When working to develop new pieces, trembly uses the Four-Step Process of Creativity: idea, delivery, sharing, and integration into the community.
“If you feel your creative process is stuck somewhere, I feel like it often gets stuck between making the idea and sharing it, then this model is a great way to overcome that,” Trembly said.
Step one, the idea, focuses on the inspiration or vision that may come to an individual, which leads into step two, delivery, which is about applying the idea to the canvas.
“Honor your visions or ideas by making them, even if they seem kind of vague” Trembly said. “However simple or abstract they may seem because they may become a foundation to a decorative wonder.”
Step three, sharing, is about creating or using platforms as bridges to step four, to let the art leave an impact on the community.
“To a viewer, I hope they enjoy the art and I hope it inspires them to appreciate the creativity of others and also to, if it feels right, develop their own creativity,” Trembly said.
Trembly was featured in the This and That Galleries in the Visual Arts building in October of 2021 as a part of his undergraduate program.
“Once my application was accepted, it became a solo show,” Trembly said. “They basically gave me the room, said ‘you can paint on the walls’ ‘you can do whatever you want,’ and I took the opportunity to feature my favorite pieces from the last two years.”
Trembly continues to explore multiple mediums of art and is currently working on a four-by-six-foot wooden panel for mural-style painting.
For more information on Trembly and his artwork, click here.
