Edwin Loftus is an American painter and draftsman born in 1951. His interest in art began at the age of 4 when he decided to draw something real rather than working from his imagination.
As a child he excelled at drawing and as a teenager he began to experiment with oil painting. In college, he took courses in art and art history and realized that true art had nothing to do with the quality of the drawing or painting, but that it had to have the ambition to push the boundaries and expand the visual experience.
He also studied philosophy, psychology and history and quickly realized that it was just another art establishment trying to defend its elitist industry and reward system. Their skills were almost non-existent, they knew nothing about psychology, perception or stimulus response, and they were extensions of the belief system that made communism, fascism and other forms of totalitarianism such destructive forces in the world. They literally believe that art shouldn't be available to ordinary human beings, but only to an elite "sophisticated" enough to understand it.
Edwin Loftus realized that the emperors of art had no clothes, but they were still the emperors. Gifted in art, he worked hard to acquire this skill. So he found other ways to make a living and sold a few artworks from time to time. For sixty years, many people enjoyed his works and some collected them.
Today, Edwin Loftus is retired. Even if he sold all his paintings for the price he asked, "artist" would be the lowest paid job he ever had... but that's the way it is. It won't matter to him after he dies. He just hopes that some people will like what he does enough to enjoy it in the future.
