Beauty, Movement, Passion
ART CREATIONS
Although Story | Strategy as a whole is a consulting firm that focuses on leadership, media, and research, it began with a simple idea: to make the world a better place, we need to reach people on levels of emotion, intellect, and ethics. Its founder, Ted Gournelos, began his career as a sculptor before moving into areas of marketing and communication, and he still believes that the arts are one of the best ways to grab people's hearts and minds. While his early work was often social-justice oriented, his more recent projects often simply try to convey a sense of beauty and fragility, usually leaving his work for social change to his other interests. Here is a selection of his artwork, ranging from glass sculptures to encaustic (wax) paintings.
Paintings
“I was always told that even my paintings and drawings were sculptures, and I take that as a compliment. Whether it is in wax to oils to watercolor, I want people to dive into my work, to lose themselves in whatever emotion it pulls out of them.”
“Although I was also trained to blow glass, I find fusing to be both intellectually stimulating (it’s always a puzzle) and freeing in terms of creating beautiful, almost architectural pieces. My work is often fragile and always time consuming to make, but I love watching the first time someone holds it in their hands and their eyes open wide.”
“Most people don’t know that my entry into art was through photography. I still love to shoot, although usually that means trying to imagine the world around us differently. Otherwise, you just see everything through a camera lens rather than experiencing it. Photography is about transformation even more than it is about documentation.”
“This is really who I am as an artist, but I’ve found that making politically or socially active artwork often doesn’t reach the right audience, or reaches it in the wrong way. I love making work that makes people think, especially in collaboration. If you don’t engage your audience, how can you expect them to engage the world?”