Carlsbad Artist Featured in Harvest Festival

A Carlsbad-based artist is one of the featured artists at the 41st annual Harvest Festival, Oct. 18 through 20, at the Del Far Fairgrounds.

Gregg “Viz” Visintainer, 29, a self-taught artist will be one of more than 300 vendors at what organizers say is the biggest art and craft show in the San Diego area. As a featured artist, he will be demonstrating his style, which he dubs Viz Art Ink. He has worked for Element Skateboards, Volcom, DC Shoes, Dregs Skateboards, Skinit, Grateful Dead, Falken Tires, Disney among others.

Visintainer, originally from San Jose, says his pen-and-ink style is unique in that each line that makes up the image has a special meaning.

“From afar, you see the main image, as you move in closer you see hidden messages, pictures — the more you look, the more you find,” he said. “It takes doodling to another level.”

As a teenager, Visintainer did not like school and doodling was a way for him to pass the time in class. In time, his doodling became more intricate and he said that it is a kind of therapy for him.

“I like to break things down into patterns,” he said. “Some people journal, I doodle.”

The Harvest Festival will be the first time that he is demonstrating his style outside of his studio, Viz Art Ink Gallery, 2906 State St., which opened in January.

“It’s not an art style that’s fun to watch,” he said. “It takes a lot of patience. A lot of people will not have the patience to try it out themselves.”

Each piece can take up to 80 hours to make, he said.