Seattle native Gregory L. Blackstock, (b. 1946) supported himself from his late teens working menial jobs; such as paper carrier, janitor, and dishwasher. He was nearly 58 years old before his large, distinctive, catalogue style drawings were were brought to the attention of a local art dealer and soon thereafter, to the world.

Blackstock is autistic, and he finds great comfort in facts. His universe is made up of countless things which need to be identified, ordered, and arranged – be they bugs, birds, vegetables or landmarks. His need to define what, for him, is a very unpredictable world is given a deeply satisfying outlet in his art. The attentive detail to his process, aided by his innate memory skill, is compelling. While the artist does not draw ‘from’ memory, he will nevertheless forever remember every detail of whatever he has researched and drawn.

Since 2004, the artist’s work has been shown in Geneva, San Francisco, New York, Vienna, Philadelphia, Miami, and Seattle. The prestigious Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, holds an impressive assortment of the artist’s work.