Tony Speirs, a Sonoma County Artist, fascinated with the nature of advertising and the fate of youth in the United States, “I like this idea of young people where they're looking directly at us, and maybe at my generation,” he says. “They're not just looking at us but more directly questioning us.”

 

Tony’s art has many influences… from his education in illustration at San Francisco's Academy of Art to L.A.'s pop-surrealism scene with figureheads like Mark Ryden, Alex Gross, & the Clayton Brothers. His subjects also sometimes guide him with  their hopes and vulnerabilities as he often interviews them before painting.

 

Speirs' intricate, large-scale acrylic portraits can take several viewings to fully appreciate. He begins with the face of his subject looking directly at the viewer, then adds a showering of pop-culture imagery drawn from 1940s-era cartoons, science fiction, and pinball machines. Tony has portrayed people from his personal life to YouTube “influencers” he’s contacted, as well as victims of racial injustice and gun violence.

 

Tony has artworks in collections at local wineries, Santa Rosa Junior College, and the Fulton Crossing Gallery. He has produced pieces for Burning Man with the local collective Art Farm Motel he founded with his wife and fellow artist, Lisa Bernstein in Graton California.

News about Tony:

​​"Graton artist’s Parkland victim portraits being turned into mural"

"North Bay artist sketches 17 Parkland shooting victim portraits"
"Tony Speirs: Mash-up artist"