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ABRIDGED VERSION
Full-time Artist. Part-time Explorer. Baboon heart. Los Angeles.

UNABRIDGED GORILLA VERSION
When I was a little kid there were two things that made sense to me more than anything else: creating and exploring. My crayons and pencils caught my imagination as much as meandering though the fields and woods that surrounded my childhood home.

That desire to create eventually took me to the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh where upon finishing my first piece ever, a portrait of a gorilla, I discovered my love for painting. From that point on I made sure every place I lived, no matter how small, had a space set aside as my studio.

After graduating the frozen tundra of Wisconsin remained home for another few years. During this time my days would be spent working as a graphic designer, while most nights would find me burrowed away in a makeshift studio space downing caffeine, and staying up until all hours painting, drawing, writing, daydreaming about living in a warmer climate and tweaking my master plan for taking over the world.

In the spring of 2003 I shaved my giant beastly winter beard, packed up all of my belongings in a van, quit my job and headed west on a one-way cross-country road trip bound for California. For the next five years San Diego became my home while I continued to design by day, make art at night and win rec league dodgeball championships on the side. It was also there, in homage to my first painting ever, that the dissemination of the Orange Gorilla Sticker began.

In 2008 I said goodbye to San Diego, the advertising world and my dodgeball team and headed out with my girlfriend on another one-way trip, this time by plane to South America. For three years we resided in Buenos Aires (mostly as illegal immigrants). Here my focus finally shifted solely to my art and the Orange Gorilla, and somewhere along the way I traded my long hair for a mohawk. After 40 months living abroad we decided we had lived south of the equator in opposite seasons long enough and headed home to Southern California.

Today we currently live in Los Angeles where I continue the quest to spread the Orange Gorilla around the world, while my brushes and I push ever further on into the laughter, darkness and everything in between that makes up life.

The continuation of my journey, along with other random thoughts, seemingly possible revelations, and grand failures can be found at the following websites:

ARTWORK | www.jimmydanko.com/
BLOG | www.harmonyanddissonance.com/
TWITTER | twitter.com/JimmyDanko