Indeed, the military has strongly influenced his life. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the military,” he says, alluding to his sister’s marriage. He wasn’t so interested in conventional high school classes at Norfolk’s Governor’s School. “I took lots of computer classes,” he says, which proved fortuitous. In 1999, after graduating from Baltimore’s Maryland Institute, College of Art with a BFA in painting, Guingon opted to ditch his art career and pursue jobs in computer graphics, which offered more money-making potential. He was hired by an Army subcontractor, and for nearly nine years he saw camouflage almost every day. His cows, with their green and brown splotches, are one result. “I [drew] a lot of camouflage for military soldiers. Cows make me think of camouflage.”
Guingon says surrealists like Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher have influenced his style. “[Surrealism] taught me that unusual and weird can be beautiful,” he says. “[Surrealist artists] paint in a very traditional way, but their subjects are non-traditional.” No flowers, no landscapes. While Escher’s paintings trick the eye, and Dali distorts images, Guingon’s paintings are open and uncluttered. “The minimalist construction in each [work] is reinforced by his clean acrylic painting,” says Barnig.
Guingon hesitates to predict the next steps in his art career—or his life. “Sometimes I don’t know where I’m going,” he says. But uncertainty isn’t a bad thing. “That’s what I like about painting. It is an extension of your expression.” Guingon.com
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