Arte Goyo

The name Goyo comes from a shortened version of my birth name, Gregorio.  It was also the nickname of my great grandfather, “Papa Goyo”.  I was born in North Carolina at Camp LeJune Naval Base, grew up in southern Michigan, and graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in Industrial Design.  I create art for no other reason than to express my love for nature.  For the past 18 years I have spent my time hiking, canoeing, backpacking, cross country skiing and fly fishing throughout the United States.  I’ve walked the beaches of the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, wandered through the deserts of Southern California, climbed the Alcove House in New Mexico, backpacked through the Smoky Mountains on the Appalachian Trail, hiked the NaPali coast of Kauai, hailed a water taxi in Maryland, ate barbecue in Texas, slept in the Badlands of South Dakota, and fly fished the big waters of Montana and Wyoming.  My first instructions in art, although I didn’t realize it at the time, began in grade school with multiple courses of architectural and mechanical drafting.  I currently teach architectural drafting at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, MI.  Formal art instruction started in college.  I received some college instruction in printmaking but not much.  So, I decided to further my knowledge through experimentation.  For the past two years I have been working in linoleum, but have slowly been working more and more in wood.  Whatever the medium, most of the art I create is based on a reverence for nature.