Blue Sky was born on
September 18, 1938 in Columbia, South Carolina as Warren Edward
Johnson. In 1954, his first foray into art won him a national
poster competition, two years before he graduated from Dreher
High School. For the next six years, he served as a jet air
craft technician in the Air National Guard, 169th Cameron Squad,
while working several different jobs to pay for college – as a
parade float builder, a layout artist, and a dance instructor,
among others.
Sky attended the University of South Carolina
from 1958 to 1964, during which time he sold original works
through USC art auctions at McMaster College. At the Springs
Mills Show in 1964, in which over 700 artists participated, he
was judged "best of show" by Henry Geldzahler, then curator of
modern art at the Metropolitan Museum. Sky was then invited to
study at the Art Students League of New York, where he lived and
worked for the next year.
Upon moving back to Columbia in 1966, Sky worked as a
draftsman and conceptual artist for Wilbur Smith & Associates
before returning to USC for graduate school. In 1970, he
graduated, earning a Master of Education, because the university
had not yet been certified to award a Master of Fine Arts.
In 1974, Sky legally changed his name from Warren Edward
Johnson to Blue Sky. He signed paintings before this year with
the abbreviation "WAR."
In 2000, Sky received the "Order of the Palm
