Greg Thornton

Visual Art – Seattle

Greg Thornton is a Seattle artist and 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 a person on the front of the t-shirt and an informational name tag on the back of the t-shirt. Greg hopes that the viewer is inspired enough to delve deeper into gaining knowledge about the person depicted. www.blackiconictshirts.com