San Francisco
Bay Area Treasure

Gerald Pavalko was the type of man who searched for the borders of reality in order to break them apart. His restless energy fostered many adventures as a young man and later fueled 21 years of exploration into the world of digital art and motion.

His story began in Youngstown, Ohio where he grew up. A highly adept mathematician, his father pushed him toward becoming an electrical engineer, but being the maverick that he was, he joined the Air Force instead. It was during this time in the Air Force (1962-1966) that his work as an artist first took root.

“It just came to me one day!” he would have told you. There was no special occasion and nothing notable happening at the time. The vision came to him in a flash while he was watching TV. He imagined moving layers of abstract images with bright patterns shining through the negative space. The vision stayed with him and he believed someday he would find a way to build a machine that could create what he saw.

Following his time in the Air Force, Gerald built his resume as a true Renaissance Man in England. At one time he was a cheesemaker in Avalon close to a friend’s winery.

At another time, one would have found him bartending at the King’s Head Theater Pub. It was while running a poster shop that he met Jordie, an eccentric fellow, who once declared to Gerald with a set of colored pencils, “You will be the one to draw the city of lights!” Gerald continued adventuring, trying on many hats, and eventually found himself in Oakland, California where he met Madonna.

Since meeting in 1980, Gerald and Madonna had been inseparable. They bonded in their love of art, animals, and self expression. In the air around them was a strong sense of silliness marked by good bantering and double entendres. As lighthearted conversations with them moved through various tangents and stories, respective spirit animals would start to shine through. Gerald was a toad and Madonna, a rabbit.

Through the years, the vision of colors and shapes moving in and out of each other stayed with Gerald. He drew sketches and created collages resembling the ideas he formulated. He didn’t know he was waiting for the invention of the computer.

It was in the early 2000s that Madonna took a photoshop class and urged Gerald to do the same. For the next 21 years he created a plethora of images, GIFs, movie files, and custom Photoshop brushes. In his office Gerald was equipped with a stack of Dover books, a scanner, and his computer. He worked diligently to create systems and processes that would allow him to produce unique and abstract moving images with just a few clicks.

He succeeded in creating that machine he envisioned, but it was a machine that he was a part of. While his involvement in the process was required, he believed it could someday be automated. He wanted to procure the help of a savvy programmer to make this possible. Emails to scholars were written but left unsent.

He knew his time was coming to an end. He often told Madonna, “We gotta get out of here.” He knew his time was coming and that is part of the reason why this project started. The world needed to know Gerald Pavalko.

Toward his end Gerald wanted to find others like himself. He talked about bringing a group of hard knocks together to share thoughts, techniques, and ideas. They could build a school, he thought, focused on teaching the skills and providing the tools to approach animation from a different angle.

At the very start of our project in early 2021, Gerald Pavalko created his first two and only two NFTs. We developed a website for his work giving the world access to view a small selection of his pieces for the first time. It was on October 21st that he passed into the light after spending a few days in the hospital with Madonna at his side.

Gerald was a unique and talented visionary - a great dancer with a wild sense of humor, often cruising the edge with an aura of otherworldliness. A true Bay Area treasure!

We aim to share his work with other streetwise artists like him who are looking for the seams that hold reality together. There is much more to discover in his art. As we dig deeper into his archive of files we find a variety of projects and ideas that he worked on. We welcome you to join us along this journey of discovery and help us keep Gerald Pavalko alive in our hearts through the celebration of his art.