06/16/2005 City Paper Article

Q&A With Johno Prascak

By Dawn Patton
Pittsburgh City Paper

What do you usually work with?
It's all enamel and sand on canvas

Why do you use those as a medium?
I never had any art lessons in my life. When I was home with my mom and dad - it was about 20 years ago - I was sick a lot. I was recovering, so I was sick with no money. So I decided to start copying Picassos and Van Goghs. The only paints that were available were the Rust-Oleum that my dad had.

Rust-Oleum?
Yeah, Rust-Oleum. I used to clean my brushes out with gasoline. Now, I since switched to enamel paints which are latex enamel, so you can wash them out with soap and water. They are more environmentally friendly, and I'll stay around longer. After a while of copying Picasso and Van Gogh, I was encouraged by an artist I met to do my own thing. I guess like a musician, you would maybe copy The Beatles or Rolling Stones until you get that down pat, and then you go from there. At that point, I started doing my own painting, and I thought, "I have to be different here." Sand just came into it. It was just one of those weird things.

What does the sand lend to the paintings?
The originals are very bumpy. The sand makes it bumpy, but also it throws off a lot of different lighting techniques. So it's a three-dimensional piece. It just gives it a different look. It's textured.

You have some Pittsburgh-themed stuff, and some sports-themed paintings. Why?
Well, I'm a sports guy. In this Pittsburgh area, sports scenes gets you out quicker, as far as notoriety. I wasn't doing it because of that, it just happened the Steelers hired me. But I love to do everything from abstract garlic paints to.. whatever.

Did you open their gallery?
A gallery just opened, on Thursday, Aug. 8.

What's it called?
Art's Gallery, after Art Rooney, the founder of the Steelers. I'm the lead artist in there at this time. I have three prints in there: The "Heinze Field" print, "Steelers Sunday", and "Art, The Chief." It's Art Rooney, but it's title "The Chief". I thought that's pretty appropriate. They'll hire me to do more down the road, once they figure out what's going on. This is a whole new thing for the Steelers. They've never done this before. They're slowly getting into the arts. This came out of the blue. I didn't know until about May that there was going to be this gallery. My original painting of "Heinz Field" hangs in the lobby down there. They own that. I'm very honored. That's the only piece of artwork down there right now, and I couldn't ask for a better place on Earth for that to be.

What influences you?
My wife [of 11 years], Maria [who runs Maria's Ideas, another art-based business]. She's the biggest helper, my support all the way around. She's number one. Which helps a marriage.