Yury LoboYury Lobo aka Yuri Slobodenyuk, was born in Germany in 1947, raised in Russia and Ukraine and lives in the USA since 1991. Since his early childhood he was fascinated with the world of Colors and the Art of Collage. However he never considered becomig a professional artist probably due to lack of encouragement from his parents. But in July 1959 he visited the First American National Exhibition with his mother in Moscow that featured Jackson Pollock's Masterpiece CATHEDRAL. He was amazed and shocked at the same time by this painting, which most visitors considered a joke in bad taste. Of course he knew little about Modern Art or Jackson Pollock at the age of 12, but the impact lasted in his subconscious, and that's why his interests centered on Artists of Avant-garde. His favorite artists are (just to name a few): Van Gogh, Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich, Picasso, Matisse, Miro, Brague, Warhol, Rothko, Klimt, Schiele, Modigliani, and of course Pollock. They give him these creative impulse just to open up and paint from the hip trusting only his own inner instincts. He created a few paintings for family and close friends. Back then in the USSR he didn't have the courage to paint and share with the public his passion for Abstract Expressionism and Collage. He kept his painting creativity mostly to himself and started to pursue career challenges in other fields: he got a Master Degree in German and English, studied history of Art and worked as a licensed multilingual tour guide in a major Art Museum of the former USSR. He became journalist, interpreter, German teacher and script writer. Having fled the USSR in 1991 for political reasons, he establish himself first in Miami and pursued his career of journalism, writing for several Russian-American Newspapers. Later on he started one of his own. In 2007 he sold his newspaper and moved to West Palm Beach, where he continues his career as a German teacher, contemporary artist, poet and writer. The freedom of expression in America has motivated and inspired Yury to fulfill the dream of his youth: sharing his creative side with public. His artistic name Lobo is a shortened form of his long ukranian last name Slobodenyuk which means a free man. Lobo which translates to wolf in Spanish, and is a symbol of a relentless will for freedom. Jackson Pollock was dubbed by journalists Jack The Dripper for just dripping paint on the canvas. I would call Yury Lobo Jack The Whipper for whipping the canvas with his high energetic lashes of paint. In 2010 Yury Lobo developed interest to Martial Arts and started training in local Aikido school. It opened a whole new page in his life: Japanese Culture and History. With that came profound interest to Japanese poetry and to particularly greatest Japanese poet Basho. During early morning and daytime meditations sessions in his own stone garden the haiku started popping up in his head and little by little a book of Japanese poetry was taking shape. Read More Read Less