For the Month of October, Seattle Creative Arts Center Presents Artist Greg Thornton, Creator of Black Iconic T-Shirts

 BLACK ICONIC FIGURES

by GREG THORNTON

Greg Thornton

Artist, Greg Thornton, is a local Ballard/Crown Hill artist.  He is the owner of Black Iconic T-Shirts, a t-shirt line inspired by his own history as a black artist and by the icons he has enjoyed and researched for as long as he can remember.

Greg has been drawing since he could hold a crayon.  His mother, Grace Clayton, soon recognized Greg’s talent.  Because Greg grew up in a household of limited means, art classes and high-end art supplies were not available, so Ms. Clayton encouraged Greg to practice his drawing skills by mimicking the comic strips in the newspaper each day.

In forming Black Iconic T-shirts, Greg created pieces of artwork of Black iconic figures that are important to Black history.  Greg then created a street motif “Hello My Name Is” name tag for each person.  The tag for each person starts with "Hello my name is . . . "  and then provides information about the historical figure, such as his or her birth name, date and place of birth, date of death (if deceased), and a few sentences about the person's "claim to fame." 

Black Iconic T-shirts sells custom-made t-shirts with the image of the person on the front of the t-shirt and the informational name tag on the back of the t-shirt.  Greg simply hopes that the viewer is inspired enough by the historical information that he or she delves deeper into these and other individual’s lives and accomplishments. 

Greg hopes you are inspired to check out www.blackiconictshirts.com to see the rest of his artwork.


Seattle Creative Arts Center
2601 NW Market