Artist Biography

Paul Haggard was born in 1965 in the Fox River Valley town of Elgin, Illinois. He grew up in a family of 5 children and was one of 3 boys. Early on trips with his Mother to the Art Institute of Chicago formed his earliest ideas of becoming an Artist and by the Age of 8 or 9 years old knew that the Arts would be his future. Some of his earliest Drawings centered around the human form, and by the age of 12 was taking the Train into Chicago to study the human form at The Amercan Academy of Art as well as The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. By 18 he earned a full ride, Walter Byron scholarship to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Instead of taking this scholarship he rather took a 2 year Scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design, in Columbus Ohio in order to get as far away as he could from his home town. After 2 years of Study in Columbus, Haggard moved to Gent Belgium in 1985 for a year of study at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, where he was exposed to more avant-garde art that was happening there at that time in Europe. At that time he became an apprentice to the late expressionist Painter Raoul Van Den Heede in Drongen, Belgium, just outside of Ghent, Belgium. (https://geertvandamme.blogspot.com/2015/03/raoul-van-den-heede-1924-1999-een.html) Upon returning to the USA and after a few years as a pressman Haggard re-applied to SAIC, where he landed another scholarship and returned there to finish and earn his BFA in December 1992. Haggard lived and worked in Chicagoland for most of his life having recently moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area in 2017.

A bit of a gypsy Soul, Haggard has spent time In Europe, Mexico & Canada. He has lived in Belgium, Ohio, Toronto, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Chicagoland.  His work has been collected by people from Belgium, France, Mexico, and the United States. With several recent mural commissions and upcoming Shows Haggard stays busy in his Georgia studio creating works that have been greatly influenced by the people and places he has visited. The central theme of his work has as much to do about the human form as it does with Color and Music.
Much of his palette is inspired by the Mexican Culture, having visited there in 1989 with his
childhood friend Francisco Abonce.

The work is as much a thesis in color as it is in the human psyche. Everyone is expressed in a multiplicity of color and personality. The work expresses the fact that everyone can be depicted in multiple ways, and yet still be an accurate representation of the diversity within each person.


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