“Familiar Stranger” was exhibited in YIELD, his first solo pop art show. Not only did he want the public to YIELD to his emergence as a pop artist, he wanted them to know that his repertoire as an artist goes beyond that of the style featured in his previous solo show. The piece addresses both his fascination and his fears of the animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese. He was always fascinated with these uncanny creatures. Not only that, he wanted to challenge people’s notions about beauty. There is beauty in the unfamiliar. There is beauty in forms other than what society has determined and defined.

Gerald is a self taught artist that has been creating all his life. He remembers as little boy sitting at the kitchen table to watch his father paint with charcoal and oils. So his first works as a little boy were either in pencil or oils. But over the decades, his creative process has evolved from folk art to abstract to his current fascination and love of both pop art and shock art. His work begins with inspiration, whether it’s from images of the past, an experience or obstacle he is trying to work through or overcome, a color, a revisitation of a previous piece, etc. His current pop art and outsider art features humor, to add to the experience, make light of the situation, shed light on the outcome or the situation, and eventually act as a catalyst to the viewers thought process and realization of the outcome as it pertains to each viewer. Gerald has Asperger’s (which for some reason does not appear in the iPhone predictive text… but Dunkin’ Donuts does!). So unless the interaction AND situation is exactly like a previous one from the past, he has trouble interpreting human interaction, cues, and emotions. These include facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, etc. If he happens to notice them, these subtle cues leave him wondering for hours, even days about what they meant. And sometimes even the most obvious of cues have him trying to interpret them for a long time. He has trouble “reading between the lines”. Therefore, he has both a natural curiosity of and fascination for human interactions, how people respond, human emotions and expressions. He finds some even futile, humorous or unnecessary, even though he has a hard time interpreting them. He does however, find it easier to notice when a person expresses genuine sincere joy and appreciation (although at times even that is hard to interpret). Gerald has had several shows in the Texas area, and has exhibited in Chicago.