My ceramics work is related to my personal attraction to flowing forms. The forms that are created are shifting, moving, and full of the energy created from the struggle between the clay and the image.
When my artwork is viewed, I would like to give the viewer a sense of created energy. I would like them to investigate, explore, struggle with, and enjoy my creation.
Art is to struggle with. To love the art – one must struggle with the creation.
What is considered “beautiful”? This is a question that runs through my mind almost constantly. It originally started after a discussion we had in a college class about the affects of the media on women. The main topic was over impact of make-up commercials and the constant drive to beautify women. As I was driving home I started thinking of this question and what I considered beautiful. I started looking around me at the hills and gazing into the sky at the clouds. They were enormous! Everything I thought was so big and important was so small compared to these monstrous clouds. I realized I was surrounded by nature’s raw and pure beauty everyday and I had never noticed it. Even when the grass is brown and there are no leaves on the trees, the sky brings it all together for a beautiful scene. Every day and every minute the clouds change into one more fascinating exhibit. I don’t have to search foreign lands for beautiful landscape to paint; I find it right there in my backyard untouched by make-up or air brush.
In my paintings I show the relationship of the massive sky against the small land by using a 2/3 method. I paint the clouds and sky as the focal point with the horizon as a supporting feature. Occasionally I do not have a horizon line in order to display a different way of viewing a landscape. This changes the perspective we are most custom with. Very few of my paintings have more than one man made object in them. I focus on the natural rather than the man made. However, I will occasionally use an object as a focal point to show a different perspective. All of these paintings in this series are oil on stretched canvas.
The work I created is derived from a simple idea of taking tasks or challenges one step at a time. I have always thought that simple is better, and I produce my work in that fashion. I transport myself back to a younger, more relaxed time. A time where Teddy Bears and Big Wheels could occupy so much of ourselves. This is a moment in our lives when spinning in circles or looking at clouds could be afternoon entertainment. My work puts this time and place in series of layers and colors that entwine the final work.
My work is created through a process of printmaking. I am interested in allowing my work to develop naturally from tearing of paper to the application of colors. My process is just as enjoyable as the result. Though finding the result is a pleasurable challenge, the process is a task I find as simple as playing with blocks. I can see where the blocks might fit or if I try and it does not fit, I lose one piece of paper to the process, and keep moving. To me my work is not precious; some might see my handling of the work as careless. However, I see it as just paper, time, and in most cases, ink that is all part of the challenge I started with the first step. I find a natural enjoyment working with the randomness of my techniques and a comfort working with my childhood memories. Laboring with the elements freely in the layers one step at a time reduces my complex finished work to a simple building game.
My goal is for the audience to see my work as a visual time machine. A step into a different, sometimes unfamiliar, place where the flame of a memory still lives. I want the viewers to have to look through the layers and find their way in and out of the realm they have placed themselves. If only for a glance I would look for the viewer to have to look through the layers and find their way in and out of the realm they have placed themselves. If only for a glance I would like for the viewer to wander through my work with a childlike curiosity and a sense of being freed from the conventional sights of their everyday lives.
An artist who takes me in at a glance is Sigmar Polke. Polke uses simple ideas in a complexity of layers and configuration. His results have free-spirited simplicity that overcomes the work from the paper to the final block. His understanding of the artistic realm is to be admired and, in my case, sought after.
They say that an artists’ work, creativity and skill aside, is a distillation of experience(s) both direct and indirect.The direct being those experiences we choose and the indirect, those we do not.The imagery I originally produced was the experience; however, at this point I find my current art is the product of indirect factors which affect me deeply.This past year my son, Russell, spent 10 months in Afghanistan as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.Though safe now, every minute of every day he was away, incredible change could have been just around the corner.Trust in the Almighty allowed me to function, but as humans we can not help but ask, “What if?”This should probably have been the name of my exhibits and where art and life for me juncture.
Creative solutions are usually preceded by asking oneself, “What if… I use this color, not that; leave a layer or bring it forward… and so on.Subconsciously, I finished every conscious art query by crossing it with a demise-of-the-week involving my Russell.The intimate little environments put before you were begun as experiments or reflections of personal change two years ago.The current pieces created while waiting for Russell’s return reflect my mindset of change as it relates to the bigger circle of family.
Strange as it may sound, my work actually clued me into the fact that my family, scattered as they may be, truly feel closer to me and I feel fuller of heart somehow.No longer will I relegate the distillation theory to the abstract theory.I understand my art to actually be the distillation of my direct and indirect experience
My purpose for the prose and poetry in Ireland on $10 a Day is to entertain and, hopefully, enlighten and inspire. My passions in life include reading good books, listening to good music, appreciating nature and travel.
My wife Michele is a 1990 graduate of the Millikin University School of Nursing who holds a BSN Degree.
My work is about two things: Color and figure. I obviously use color with the paint in the photographs and dyes in the sculptures. I started to focus on the figure more and more my Junior and Senior year. The images created of the female nude have changed drastically through time. Looking back in art history, you seen women who by today’s standards would be considered “fat.” Society and the fashion industry of today are the primary causes of an epidemic of eating disorders and false body images in many young women. I myself have fallen victim to the ads and television shows portraying women of size that I could never physically be.
My artwork is a way to look at the issues. I try to include in my photographs and sculpture women of all shapes and sizes. Hopefully the viewer will see that the female figure is beautiful, no matter what size.
The forms, subjects, and colors in my work are all from the everyday life that is around me. I have discovered that my best work seems to come from taking something that I am familiar and comfortable with, whether it be a certain color, a line in from of a pot, or the shapes in a vegetable, and manipulating it slightly so that it is able to stand on its own. I like to work with things that are innately simple, add a bit of complexity, and go from there. This approach works well in both painting and ceramics. It took a long process, though, to be able to create a successful and cohesive body of work.
Over the course of the last few years, I have come to learn about and explore innumerous stylistic approaches and subject matter. Each new style or form that I approached seemed to consistently yield interesting results, but struggled to maintain my interest, and I would seek out and explore a new idea. It was through this long process that I created many interesting paintings, masses of ceramics, and a palpable feeling of inconsistency. There was no repetition within the exploration – no pattern. Once and idea had been tried, it was on to another. Exploration of this nature was good for learning about many new ideas, but not for exploring any to their full potential. This has become my goal.
At a glance, it may seem readily apparent to some why I chose the word ‘pattern’ to describe this body of work. The work encompasses so much more than the obvious, though. The consistency I have created in my work is a long sought after goal that has only come through many unplanned and surprising color combinations, line movements, and miss-thrown pots. It was after focusing, following through and pushing these accidents to see their full potential that I was able to create a new piece, and then another, and so on. The decorations and repetitious designs that adorn my work are by no means placed thoughtlessly. Each painted image has a color that must be found to best depict it. Each pot has a design that best suits its form. These are all part of the process that creates a pattern. Each work of art begins with the same questions, but each time yields slightly different results. These questions have slowly evolved as my exploration of each piece has been modified slightly. I hope to continue with this process and see where it leads.
“If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.” This is one of my favorite quotes from Lance Armstrong. His passions involve riding bikes and overcoming obstacles, and these passions are mine as well. Bikes are an obsession of mine that have been a part of my life since I was young. It is my escape. When everything around me is going wrong, I can get away from it all by painting bikes, I want my paintings to be sexy, glossy, bold, with a strong composition. I want the viewer to be compelled to touch my paintings. I look at space, color, color relationships, and focus on creating an illusion of shine, making things look three dimensional and creating movements with repetition. I enjoy the dynamics of bikes, and the energy created from the interplay of the parts.
When I throw a pot on the wheel, I think about how I would use them in everyday life. I want my pieces to be functional. My pieces are not just a display of artwork, but everyday object that are used. My work is very glossy and I want the viewer to be attracted by the glazes that are on my pieces. The color of the pots is just as important as the shape. My pots are durable, bold and serve a purpose.
I find the texture of clay very honest and soothing to the human touch. I hope in my work one is drawn to pick it up and explore it with their fingertips. I want my work to be interesting to look at but very simple and straight forward. It would also be a thrill to me to know that my pieces are being used at the dinner table. Maybe my work will become a favored piece that is passed down from generation to generation and holds many stories of family get-togethers and events. If this happens, the I have created my definition of what art is to me, which is, work that is timeless, sensual, and provokes a special private thought or feeling for its owner or owners.
I do the work that I do simply because I enjoy it. It is also a good way to pass the time. At age 80 I have no long-term goals or aspirations, except getting up in the morning.
I make decisions in my work based on the quality of the textile material. It may be the type of material or color that I am drawn to.
My current work varies. I jump from machine knitting to sewing. I get bored doing the same thing. Initially, when I was younger, it was practical to make your own clothing. Now, I create textile pieces purely for enjoyment. Keeping active and challenging my ability is an important part of my work.
As an art educator, I have always been concerned with the arts as a means of communication of ideas and development of critical thinking and problem solving. Working with students I have tried to help them develop these ideas through their art projects. Now that I am retired, I am trying to continue this in my own work.
Education - Bachelor of Fine Arts from Millikin University, Master of Arts in Communications from Sangamon State University.
Employment
Taught Art in grades K-12 and at the Junior College level. Retired from District 186 after teaching for 31 1/2 years, the last 27 years at Springfield High School. Worked for 5 years at Dick Blick Art Materials and currently a member and curator of the Prairie Art Alliance in Springfield, Illinois.
Published Work
Illinois Times and Springfield Magazine illustrations
Illustrations for Jim Andrew's anthology, "Quincy Blues" Springfield Area Arts Council note cards
Mural Projects
Illinois State Fairgrounds Grandstand and Key West Area Murals Springfield Big Brothers and Big Sisters Office Murals
First Christian Church Nursery and Classrooms Murals Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Construction Site Mural Project with Harvard Park Elementary students (Helen Stannard, co-artist)
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Construction Site Mural Project with Pleasant Hill Elementary students (Helen Stannard, co-artist)
Springfield Southeast High School Entryway Mural
Kemmerer Village Administration Building Murals, Assumption, IL
Awards - 2003 Mayor's Awards for the Arts, Individual Artist category
Both of my parents come from large, Catholic farming families- which led to very strict, pious childhoods for my parents and me. Growing up on the farm, the girls in my mother’s family had to learn to sew their own clothes at an early age. Years later, quilting and decorative arts of all sorts are still evident in my childhood home. Around town in the 1990's, we were perceived as the model family, and since then have transformed into the stereotypical family of the new millennium– which is quite an unconventional one pertaining to homosexuality, divorce, and interracial marriage.
In my current work, I question gender roles through sewing, taking on a normal practise of a woman. I recreate and analyze family photos to reveal the irony and honesty manifested in the present through the exploration of memories. Using fabric and patterns reminiscent of traditional quilting, I am referencing an activity that repeatedly constructs specific boundaries, obsessive and devotional in nature, to box in and bombard a rather insignificant figure.
My drawings recreate fabric swatches to contrast the relationships between the dexterity of hand drawn patterns and cleanliness of the manufactured patterns, masculine prints and colors with feminine prints and colors, and a small figure in relation to simple shapes varying in size. The writing or note taking reiterates these contrasts and also juxtaposes present day quotes of family members with images of them from the past. The use of graphite in drawing reminds me of the tool primarily used by grade school children, which differs from the precision of the open, outlined figures. In my painted works, I cover pieces of fabric with paint creating negative space; then, I scrape away to allow patterned areas to shine through the paint. This process represents the importance of appearances in the family by continually masking and covering up any indiscretions.
By exposing family stories, I hope to show that current cultural issues are ubiquitous. I wish that society may continue moving forward with open minds and a further acceptance of diversity.
I am not an artist. I am a painter. My paintings are not concerned with any notion beyond the limits and freedoms of my medium. The politics of color and the religion of composition are my platform. The Work of painting drives me and ultimately it is only The Work that will satisfy me. I recognize myself in painting. I wait for the instant when I cannot find the division between my work and myself.
Painting is problem solving. In my most recent body of work I have been exploring solutions to the challenge of better organizing space in a square, this is where my focus lies. In addition, I am seeking ways to reconcile the relationships between contiguous forms. Susan Rothenberg said that a painting is made of three things; the figure, the ground, and the relationship between the previous two. The forms are the primary structures holding the composition plumb. The bars of paint are not merely referencing the subject, they are the subjects. It would be quite easy for me to connect the forms in my paintings to one of a thousand objects that exist in real space and claim with a level of sincerity and conviction that this is what the paintings are about. I have refered to my forms as fences, telephone poles, highways, wood floors, and elastic waist bands. However, this is only to help me understand what structural role the forms may be playing, ultimately my paintings are paint, and they are rapt with paint, and they are about the act of painting.
Painting is the understanding of history. Through my relatively brief history in painting I have operated with a small cannon of highly personaly influential painters who are always at my attention. The work of Phillip Guston, Squeak Carnwath, Agnes Martin, and Sean Scully has provided me with direction and focus for the last four years. While there are numerous others I greatly cherish, I would not be the same painter I am had it not been for these afore mentioned brilliant minds.
I like the way working feels, the resistance of a brush as it slides across the surface, the movements of my arm, and the pain in my left knee from standing. The act of painting, my mistress. As a painter I am not an activist armed with a number twelve filbert. I have no desire for a “higher” motive to paint.
Inspiration for my work can come from any one of a variety of sources.Sometimes a classical from might be an influence while other times a form or texture from nature might have an influence.In fact, I’ve been told more than once that my work has an organic quality.All of my pieces have a combination of functional and aesthetic purposes.The clay medium makes this possible because there are so many different things you can do with clay to affect the final product.
The majority of my pieces are either high-fired stoneware or raku-fired works, although occasionally I’ll produce something in porcelain or even low-fired earth ware.Whatever the type of clay or firing process used, there is always a common denominator involved.That is the fact that it is pure pleasure for me to work with this stuff.There are so many variations in methods, materials, techniques and tolls that the end results are virtually unlimited.This, to me, is what makes working in ceramics so exciting.
Wheel-throwing is the predominant techniques I use in building my pieces, but hand-building techniques are also used.Once of my favorite forms, platters that can be used for serving or as wall hangings are made using a combination of the wheel-throwing and slab-building techniques.Then, the large area for the serving surface becomes a canvas, so to speak, for a multitude of decorating techniques, including glazes, under glazes, slips, textures and attachments.
My ultimate goal is to create pieces which give functional and visual enjoyment to the end user.Mugs for coffee, a tea bowl for you favorite tea, or a vase for a bung of daisies are examples of simple functions a piece can perform.The design I create enables this and, hopefully, also provides a pleasing and visual appearance.If people have as much fun using my pieces as I have making them then I guess I couldn’t ask for much more.
I was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois and received a degree in business administration from MillikinUniversity.Since a very young age I have been interested in art; however, I have never had any formal training in visual art until my senior communications executive noticed my doodles during a staff meeting and encouraged me to take a formal drawing course at the university level.Eventually, it led me to take more art courses and, finally, a degree in art education from IllinoisStateUniversity.While studying at ISU, I was introduced to ceramics at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
Quilling (the art of paper filigree, or rolled paper) has been my favorite medium to work in since I learned the technique almost ten years ago. I have ventured from creating small pieces to be framed for decoration purposes to designing greeting cards and even 3-dimensional objects. However, lately I have discovered that I enjoy almost anything that can be precisely created. For example, I have begun to draw, paint, sculpt, and build with many different materials. Nevertheless, no matter what medium I work in my art tends to be very geometric and carefully designed. I use a variety of subjects when creating and always strive to be original.
A major influence for me is my dad. I have strived to be just like him while growing and learning everyday. I was, and still am today, mesmerized by whatever he does; whether it’s playing and/or fixing a computer, learning about some new piece of technology, or measuring out the plans for his newest project. Every measurement he takes is exact and if an original idea does not turn out as planned, he finds a creative way to solve the problem at hand. I have learned over the years to complete projects in exactly the same manner. This influence can be seen in almost all of my pieces. I always plan ahead and try to be resourceful when it comes to finding ways around troubles.
My work in the ceramics studio and in the drawing studio is not independent of one another. Solutions used in one studio are often repeated in the other.
My ceramic work begins with simple wheel thrown forms. Platters are the form of choice, offering a different surface to draw on. Using colored slips, stains, and engobes, I work the surface in ways similar to my drawings. I overlap, cut in, and mask forms. An important aspect of my process for completing a platter is my platter studies. I throw cups by the dozen and decorate them in a rather spontaneous, quick way. By doing this, I find interesting combinations of certain forms or a new technique for working a clay surface. Arrangements of line and form on my cups and platters are often borrowed from my experiences in drawing.
In earlier drawings, I worked from observation, where I masked and revealed certain forms from the figure that were interesting to me. That process and the decisions made has directed me away from the figure. My recent work has dealt with the arrangement of line, form, and color. The possibilities of these arrangements are endless. By overlapping, taking out, and cutting in, I can explore these possibilities. Remnants of past decisions can be seen beneath the layers, revealing the history of the piece.
Statement:
My work derives its inspiration from personal experience and historical references. Using clay as my medium, I create both functional and artistic pieces. The functional work is high-fired and emphasizes form, design and color. The artistic pieces are raku-fired and focuses on images of animals and symbols representing personal interpretations of life experiences and commentary.
In high-fired, salt glazed or raku-fired work, my focus continues to be form and design. The high-fired and salt glazed functional work takes into consideration the function, esthetics, and the user. From this I create a full line of functional pots that accent household space and use. My glazes and designs are developed to enhance the individual pieces, not to overwhelm the piece, but to beautify it.
Primarily I work in stoneware and raku for the freedom and spontaneity it allows during the creative process. The high-fire techniques provide continuing opportunities to explore form and color. The raku process provides me a chance to utilize my printmaking experience in a direct and spontaneous manner.
Most of the elements of the created form are wheel thrown, then the surface becomes the “canvas” for my paintings and graphic images. This process enables me to work with fluid thrown forms, altering and designing each piece as an entity within itself. I am particularly interested in the formal aspects of the structure of the work. The inherent elements of the form are enhanced by the color and design to give each piece its own statement and character. Each formal decision in the creative process can be viewed alone or as part of the whole. A balance is established between the rhythm of the form and the decoration. The challenge is to create something of beauty and value from a material that starts as a lump of clay.
Artist Bio:
Bruce Grimes is a native of Illinois and has lived in Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico. After receiving a Bachelor f Fine Arts degree from Millikin University (Illinois) and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University, Bruce taught ceramics courses at Ohio Northern University. The University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, University of North Florida, West Texas A & M University and Fort Lewis College (Colorado). Bruce returned to Ohio where he has focused his efforts doing his pottery full-time. Bruce has exhibited nationally and regionally in more than 200 shows and his work is featured in a number of books.
Bruce Grimes relocated to Ohio in 2000 to establish a pottery studio. He continues to exhibit in galleries and sells his ceramics nationally. Currently Bruce teaches at a local Community Pottery, is an adjunct professor at Cedarville University and leads workshops routinely.
For the last couple of years, sculpture has been the main focus of my artistic endeavors and I fear that this will still be true as long as I live. I fear it because sculpture is for me a source of great passion as well as great frustration. Working with sculpture the way that I do makes the subject matter of my sculptural work all the more important because what can you base your work on if not the human figure? I have found the solution to this problem by referencing my own personal thoughts and feelings associated with them.
One of the common themes in my work is the rejection of the ideal whatever form it may take. To me, the most idyllic forms are those that are geometric in design and inorganic in nature. I desire to confront the viewer with this ideal form and then manipulate it in front of the viewer while at the same time transforming it into something organic and thus less then idyllic. The contrast between geometric and organic aspects of my work is very important to me because I enjoy being able to free the material (square steel stock) from its original context of industrial application through the careful manipulation of its form. Movement and fluidity are added through the use of an element of gesture contained in my work, enhancing the contrast by playing off the static aspects of the geometric forms. Each part of the sculpture is dependant on all the other parts in terms of both form and structure and therefore the overall form of the work is determined by the interactions between all of its parts. This echoes my interest in Taoist and Buddhist concepts concerning universal harmony and the Heraclitean notion that the only constant in the universe is change, is embodied by each part’s form changing back and forth from geometric to organic.
These paintings are a part of a solo show I had entitled, “American Toybox” at Perkinson Gallery in the Kirkland Fine Arts Center. The show ran from December 7, 2004 through January 28, 2005. The show consisted of thirteen paintings and several intaglio prints. My paintings are about looking at life through a time when the world was a wonderland.
I started these current paintings in 2003 after creating a painting of brightly colored insects. I enjoyed the repetition and color that I sued in the insect painting so I decided to continue with this idea, but use the imagery that is meaningful to me. I began to reflect and I came to the realization that my childhood and life to this point has been amazing. When I began these toy paintings I thought to myself that I am at a point in my life of letting go of my adolescence and entering a world of adulthood, a transition that has been very difficult to me. The inner child does not want to let go. So I paint toys. This is who I am. Every time I pickup a paintbrush I am bombarded with nostalgia of a childhood that I would not rewrite any other way.
To create my paintings I mix galkyd and liquin to colors to give my surface a sense of vibrancy. Some of my paintings have more apparent brush strokes than others, which I really enjoy to show a sort of texture of surface of an object. I choose to use large-scale paintings to overwhelm an audience just as a child is overwhelmed with real functioning toys. The approach I took for the first several paintings was that I painted the toys and randomly placed them. I would overlap certain areas of objects and place them so that there was balance throughout my composition. Currently in my studio I am working on five paintings, two of which are commissioned. My work has and will continue to involve toys, adolescence, and refreshing imagery. This is part of who I am. In the words of Jackson Pollock “I paint what I am.”
My work is inspired by the work of Pop Artist, James Rosenquist who creates large-scale paintings. I appreciate his imagery, painting style and ambition. Many of Rosenquist’s paintings deal with social issues and they give the viewer much to think about. This I enjoy. I want my audience to think beyond my imagery they may have been blessed with.
My paintings are about honesty, pride, gratefulness and ultimately happiness. It is evident that these paintings speak volumes about who I am. From these paintings I want my audience to appreciate and capture the joy of their inner child.
Graphic Design
"There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination." - Ralph Waldo Emerson. As a child I have always been designing things whether is was a sign with markers to sell lemonade or a card for a friend. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school I realized I would have to do some kind of art as my career. I was in a class where I got a taste of graphic design. From that moment on I have been doing some kind of design work every day. I live, breath, and drink it in. My goal in life is to design magazine layouts for a huge company such as Elle, Cosmo, Rolling Stone, and etc… I would like to get into photography which I think will help me accomplish this goal.
When I design I please the client first and foremost, but then I like to add my own flare. The use of line and geometric shapes comes up in my design work frequently. I get my shapes from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, which create a retro feel. However lately I have been trying to play with typography more and not rely on the shapes to make my design stand out. Overlapping and changing the size I think gives my work a very contemporary look. Andy Warhol’s use of bright colors has always fascinated me. He gives me inspiration and determination to use bright bold colors in my designs. I think the combination of playing with text, bright colors, and unique shapes are what my design work is all about. I want my piece (poster, billboard, magazine layout, logo, or brochure) to stand out. My main priority is to help the clients get their idea out to the public. Making things pop out and catch peoples eye is something I strive for. I want someone to like a magazine layout or poster I create so much that they will save it and might even hang it on their wall. I feel that I get to use my imagination and create something that is not only art, but serves as a viable part of our society, whether it’s selling a product or promoting something. Being a graphic designer and getting something back from the printer is a natural high that cannot easily be explained. I believe it’s something you have to experience for yourself.
Ceramics
As a graphic designer I don’t get to express my emotions as much as I would like. While designing a logo or poster is very clean and orderly, ceramics is messy and can be more spontaneous. Most of my ceramic pieces not made with the thought of being functional. The shapes of my pots come from a lot of different inspirations such as the female figure, architecture, and elements of nature. Many of my designs on my pieces come from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, thus creating a retro feel to my pieces. The use of geometric shapes and lines is the graphic designer in me coming out in my 3D work.
When my arms are covered in clay I feel a sense of relaxation and tranquility. As a child I hated to get messy and today I live for it. By doing both graphic design and ceramics, I get to use my knowledge from both fields to help strengthen the other field. My background in design and pattern helps me with decorating and creating my ceramic pieces. Ceramics is a way of taking my design work and being able to physically mold it into something, rather than creating it through a computer.
I love to play with glazes to make the form not only pop out to the eye but to complete to form I have already created. Normally I dip or pour my glazes onto my pots; however some of my wall hangings and intricate designs require me to brush the glaze on. I like to pick colors that will stand out, and will be able to fit into its surroundings. When choosing what colors to use I step back and think of what the shape of the piece and designs on it tell me. Then I choose colors that will help strengthen the design of the piece as a whole. The process of dipping the pot is a design element to me. I get to choose how much of each color will show at every angle, thus making it most appealing to the eye. Depending on the piece you can create clean crisp lines or have a smooth blended transition between the colors when you overlap them.
The challenge of my paintings is to make sense of the cacophony of our image laden world by exploiting the entropy of simulacra drawn from a broad image bank. This process simultaneously identifies the phenomenon of the information age and resolves this issue by creating an aesthetic object of relation. I use rational knowledge to discriminate, compare, measure, and categorize these simulacra to construct an intellectual map of reality.
This reality is composed of internal and external forces. The intuitive mode of consciousness helps define and validate various points of contact with this ever expanding reality. This reality is comfortable with change. It denies binary oppositions and validates that we are faced with multiple truths and views and complex interrelationships within an age of globalization and information.
These simulacra are emptied of all information and meaning over their life in these paintings. They are forced to change to validate their existence or are destroyed.
The concept of identity is the source of inspiration for a lot of my work. Looking at rural structures in the landscape, I was struck by the history built into these places and how much one's identity could be constructed around the presence of that environment. People who work with the land, such as farmers, have an obvious connection to the countryside. Commuters who drive by it everyday also have a connection, as does anyone who has had an experience within the landscape. Visual landmarks contribute as we orient ourselves to them — I live across from the grove of trees on the left side of the road. Rural structures and other elements that find their way into my drawings often times have multiple meanings related to their function that mirror human actions. Barns and silos store and protect, while fences can protect by keeping things in or out. And all three of those can break down with time. Fields create rhythms and patterns that are familiar with the passing of each season. This adds to the collective identity of the Midwest.
I am also interested in the relationship between identity and role-playing. The image of the apron represents the act of role-playing — it can be put on and taken oft worn for any length or time. Aprons symbolize many things, from the role of the woman, protection, fashion and social status, to physical labor. Drawings with aprons usually are perforated, much like paper doll books, to signify the perceived choices within the role being played.
For now, it all comes back to identity and how we identify ourselves. Some of my favorite artist influences have been Philip Pearlstein and realism, William Kentridge and process drawing, Alice Maher and her Irish dancers, and Dorthea lange and her documentation of human life.
Before coming to Millikin, I used only my digital camera to take pictures. After experimenting with black and white photography in classes at Millikin, I have grown to love shooting with film instead. Developing the image in the darkroom and having an active part in getting the best out of a photograph makes me feel more connected to my art. I primarily shoot black and white photographs because of their simple beauty, but I never limit myself to one genre of photography. Photography is rooted in balance, and I struggle to achieve that balance in my art.
Norma Malerich was featured in the article, "Malerich Addicted to Creativity", which appeared in the Millikin Quarterly last summer (thanks to the Millikin Quarterly for reprint permission).
Education
1 year Ward Belmon, Nashville, TN.
2 years Millikin University, Decatur, IL. Completed art major.
2 years private instruction in Tokyo and Yokahama, Japan.
Work Experience
1960-63 teacher, private painting class
1965-66 teacher, painting classes for teenagers and adults at St. Vincent's Hospital, St. Louis, MO.
Professional Memberships, Activities
Founded the Artists' Boutique, a semi-annual arts and crafts show held in St. Louis County. The Artists' Boutique consists of 50 permanent atists with 10-20 screened guest artists at each show.
1964 Permanent board member of the Artists' Boutique.
1975-1981 Co-owner of The Art Works, Inc. St. Louis County.
1981-1984 Co-owner of The Art Works, Inc. wholesale art business.
Exhibitions
WITVA Court Yard Show, Boca Raton, Florida 2005
Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, Florida Summer 2004
Moscow, Russia First Soft Doll Show November 2003
WITVA Court Yard Show Boca Raton, Florida 2003
WITVA Court Yard Show Boca Raton, Florida 2001
Southeastern Art and Craft Show, Columbia, SC 1994
Galleria of Sculpture 2-person show Worth Ave., Palm Beach, FL
Detroit Gallery of Contemporary Crafts, Detroit, MI
Jon Bernard Gallery, Orlando, FL
Garrett Gallery, St. Louis, MO 2-person show 1995
1965-1984 many art shows in MO and IL
Norma Malerich's artwork has sold in fine galleries from Worth Ave. to Carmel, CA and in Montreal, Canada. A lifetime on imagination underlined by living in the Orient and lots of travel shows in her paintings and fabric work.
My work is, very simply, about the beauty found in every day.
Since the age of 12, I have been obsessively passionate about being a photographer. It started as a desperate attempt to record every day of my life and every person in it on film. But when I turned 17 and got my first “real camera” (Cannon Rebel 2000), it developed into a love of the art.
I quickly learned the camera doesn’t see what the eye sees; it sees the way you tell it to. So through lots of practice and experimentation, photography has become my way of sharing the way I see the world with others. Not only by photographing and sharing beautiful moments I have been lucky enough to experience, but also by sharing how I can see the frightening lighting storms, dreary and rainy days, smelly and smoky fires, and ordinary puddles as a thing of beauty and worthy of a second look in a new light.
Photography as a fine art has long been a debatable topic in the art world. Especially with all the advances in technology making advanced and digital cameras more common in the average home, it has become harder to defend as a true form of art. While I have never questioned it, after only one year of working with my Digital SLR (Cannon EOS 20D), I have come to believe that capturing the beauty of nature or of a smile still takes more than just the click of a button. You have to take into consideration the same elements and principles as any other artist with any other medium: light balance, composition, color, content, etc. And the digital world is opening up even more ways for photographers to express themselves through their medium.
Through my experience at Millikin University, I have learned a lot about what it means to be a artist and a photographer. I have learned all about the relationship of light and time to an image and dark room processes in the black and white classes. In the alternative process class, I learned about the early processes of photography and how to use them. And in the color class I learned more about using light and color, and in this class I started my work with digital photography.
All of this put together has shaped my work and has taken it from photography to art. My pictures are meant to be enjoyed for their beauty, irony, content, color, and intrigue. There is a lot of thought put into the setting up and processing of each shot to make it a true piece of art. My hope is that you will enjoy looking at my photographs as much as I have enjoyed creating them.
I create an illusion of depth in painting for the viewers to feel apart of the piece. To me space is an important aspect in my works with creating a vast place that one can feel the pressure of the forms pushing and pulling towards us. From looking at Hans Hoffman theory of push pull in his works I have began to understand the use of depth and color relationship in painting. With these relationship I have push my work further with vibrant and true colors that allows the eyes to be attracted to.
In my early works I have little sections that integrated with the human figure I have placed upon the painting. These sections of space, I want the viewer to find interesting as they are isolated from figure. These isolation are created with emotional movement and understanding from myself the artist to portray my expression. Art has been my form of expression to others to relay my thoughts to other from the play in the spacial relationships on the canvas.
Throughout history women have been a subject for scrutiny and admiration. We are constantly changing our appearance and lives to keep up with the world, and while doing this we often lose sight of who we are. Since I was young I have always been told what I need to do and be. In time I began exploring the
world independently through the eye of my first camera, an SLR, the Nikon N65.
I became intrigued by the self-portraits of Cindy Sherman and soon began exploring the thing I feared most, yet found fascinating: exploration of the self. At first I began with simple self-portraits but as I continued to work I became interested in aspects of the nude figure. This phase coincided with my trip to the Southwest United States two summers ago. This is where I began to see things differently. I found, as I tried to place the nude figure among the rocks, that the smooth pinkish orange tones of the body were complementing the same tones in the giant rock formations. As I worked the body merged with the environment it was in. This has led me to create many abstractions of the figure in my photography and
to use natural processes in my ceramics. My current photos are digital images based on highly saturated abstractions of the body, which makes them almost unidentifiable. My ceramics currently consist of plaster cast clay sculptures, which I have pieced together and manipulated using alternate processes to make
them a landscape of their own. I have done much work on tweaking my alternate process in order to bring out the bright colors and saturations that I saw in the rocks and that I look for in my photos. I do these things to further my idea of the body as a landscape. I want every depiction of the figure I photograph or mold to be seen as unique. For me this was a great step in realizing who I was. We do not all have to be the same size and shape to be beautiful, because being a woman is beautiful.
This said, I still struggle between adherence to expectations and societal views while fighting them at the same time. It’s a never - ending battle. I have become obsessed with making a smooth surface and perfect curves in my ceramics, conforming to what is expected of me. Yet with abstraction I find I am able to accept the differences we all have from each other. I recently became interested in the work of Ron Mueck, a realistic sculptor of the human body as well as Leonard Nimoy who did a study on full-figured women who are comfortable in their skin. In my work the body is no longer an object, but a land to be explored in a different way.
As an artist whose strengths lie in drawing and graphic design, I find it difficult to connect the two contrasting mediums; however, I find in both fields that all of my compositions revolve around problem solving and decision-making. All of my work involves a division of space, color, and an arrangement of abstracted shape and form representative of everyday objects. Whether I am designing or drawing, my work is a process of trial and error, searching for aesthetic solutions and dynamic composition.
Design has trained my eye to take note of the smallest details. Through developing logos, brochure layouts, corporate, and brand identities, I have trained myself to make decisions regarding color and composition which are appropriate for the project. My problem solving skills and ability to take note of detail carries over into my drawings.
My figure drawings feature the model drawn primarily with oil pastel and charcoal. I keep the small scale in order to preserve the complexity of the surface, as well as its intimacy. My drawings deal with the division of space between a primarily geometric background and organic figure. By nesting the figure within a background, I create a duality between opposite forms. I apply a process of adding and scraping away at the surface, which produces layers of vibrant color and texture. The process is then repeated in both the figure and the background creating a harmony between the two forms. Through this process, I am able to render a simplified, yet sophisticated, organization of form, color, and texture.
In both fields, my problem-solving and decision-making abilities have allowed me to create exciting results.
The Kilborn Alley Blues Band is gritty Chicago blues and southern fried soul for all
generations of blues lovers. This music speaks for itself; better still, it convinces you to
listen. Frontman Andrew Duncanson barks, wails, growls, moans, slips effortlessly into
falsetto. He channels Junior Wells, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Luther Allison, and, of
course, the often imitated Howlin’ Wolf. This isn’t unimaginative mimicry, and it is only
partly homage. Kilborn Alley deliberately speaks the great idioms of the blues, because
their goal is to deliver the blow-out bar show associated with blues at its zenith. Put it
in the Alley is case-in-point; the nearly all-original program shows the bands classic
influences, while appealing to blues fans of all ages.
The Kankakee Sunday Journal blues reviewer has said Andrew Duncanson is “a
natural at singling the blues!” Andrew’s voice just keeps drawing stunning
comparisons. He’s also a killer guitarist. Joe Asselin will almost certainly become one
of the signature harp players of his generation. Ed O’Hara, the wise elder
and percussion maniac, is one of the shrinking handful of drummers you can’t take your eyes
off. Chris Breen weaves the magical, seductive bass groove; funky Josh Stimmel on
guitar; the master of the soul riff, rounds out the five-some. Tight. They have to be tight;
they play constantly.
Adventurers in the blues, Kilborn Alley never plays a song the same way twice. Only
now, they do their exploring with over six hundred under their belt, a whole bunch of
new friends, and the lead-pipe certainty they can bring great blues pleasure to audiences
everywhere.
I’ve had a strong interest in both the visual and performing arts for as long as I can remember. I decided during my sophomore year of college I might want to pursue a degree in graphic design. I enrolled myself in art classes throughout high school and when I chose a college, I enrolled myself at Drake University with a graphic design major. My interest in the theatre led me to Millikin where I opened my acting major. After only a year away from the visual art, I picked up my Art again and have been exploring the fine arts concentrating my efforts into graphic design.
My passion for graphic design sparked with the discovery of web design, which led me to teach myself and start work with Photoshop. I used Photoshop throughout high school to design projects such as t-shirt and poster designs. I find it easiest to manipulate and form my art with the use of a computer but with time and effort, I feel I’ve built up a fairly strong talent for hand produced design.
Jewelry is beautiful and subjective and a statement of style.
It’s so easy to become lost in the mundane motions of everyday life. I find it refreshing that we each have the ability to place a bit of beauty back into the work. However small that may be. When an individual chooses a special piece of jewelry, he or she is sharing their own sense of style and a bit of their personality with the rest of us.
Each stage of jewelry design is a journey and a challenge that I adore. I am just as passionate about the initial thought process and rough sketching as I am about the finished pieces.
In the end, for myself, designing is nothing more than enjoying the moment and recognizing the beauty in the details of life. If I’ve done that, I’ve achieved my only goal. A soft, pink rose, the clean lines of a building’s façade, the way a breeze catches a tree limb – all inspire my imagination. Gems and jewelry just happen to be my personal medium of expression.
In choosing a design for the Vespers ornament, I tried to think of one of the most widely recognized symbols of Christmas. The symbol that stood out most in my mind was that of an angel. When I was young, I was read the story of the first Christmas, and the angels left a great impression on me. I always imagined them white clad with an inner, unearthly light that demanded admiration. Angels are beacons of peace. They brought the news of the coming of the Christ child. The angles sang to the poor shepherds in the pasture offering the promise of the savior to come and so gave all mankind a hope that could resonate in our souls. Vespers literally means evening prayers. And so, in the spirit of Christmas and in the traditions of the angels, we gather to sing praises, forgetting other worldly matters in homage to something greater than ourselves. To convey the supreme presence of angels, I chose very soft, smooth, sweeping lines to unify a design of repetitious, earthly shapes. The use of line and subject matter, the human figure, are common themes present in most of my work.
Application of paint on canvas, utilization of brushstrokes and examination of color: these are the elements I found most intriguing as I first began to paint. While I have become increasingly concerned with such formal qualities as composition, light and form, I give the greatest amount of attention to color and surface as I connect brush to canvas.
My major reference when working is Van Gogh. I paint using natural hues on a loaded brush; pushing these colors around and building them up on canvas creates the effect of swirling, organic movement. With every brushstroke comes life and energy. It is in this manner that I convey to the viewer the multifaceted yet subtle variations that occur in both color and surface. As paint becomes thicker and hues more broken, my work develops its own physical presence. Each painting becomes sensual: more than eye candy, the viewer should be able to touch it, to smell it, to taste it.
Within my work this past semester, I have also begun to consider the complex relationship that exists among memory, beauty and the self. Although I begin each painting with the still life sitting directly before me, I quickly stray from this referent. As Edgar Degas once stated, “It is all right to copy what you see, but it is much better to draw what you can no longer see except through your memory. This is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory. All you reproduce is what struck you.”
Thus, as I work, I depart from reality and instead paint what I remember, or rather, what I think I remember. Although a number of details are lost in translation and others are exaggerated, the final result depicts what I find most significant. By pouring my own perception into every brushstroke, my paintings capture a subjective, ephemeral beauty that the photograph cannot see.
Maybe I look at a lime only to see its luscious colors and rippling texture and want each of my viewers to engage in this same aesthetic experience. Or maybe I am acutely aware of an onion’s broken skin and unbearable smell, but so desperately want to perceive it as extraordinary that I skew my own memory to make it so. Regardless, I believe my best paintings to be those that enhance the beauty of an object in an attempt to force the viewer to perceive that object in a different, and in my opinion, better light.
My work, photography and design, is meant to represent the fashion industry. I am interested in fashion simply because of the power that this industry possesses, an industry so powerful, in fact, that people- whether they realize it or not- live their lives in accordance with its many dictums. The fashion industry chooses people’s clothing styles, their hair and make-up; and its fashion models determine what kinds of idealized persons will represent their world. Then, with enough media exposure and time, the industry models will represent the targeted consumers.
The haute fashion models themselves are usually portrayed visually as ubermodels; psychologically they have on viewers the effect of uberhuman. Similarly, the super in the term supermodel implies a super being- a superior archetype- with that certain something every woman should strive for. If a woman cannot achieve the transformation to supermodel from within, then she must successfully emulate one on the outside.
In my work I strive to show that these woman models are not ethereal and untouchable; they are solidly human, relatable. But the view must first break down the “Barrier of Beauty” to see the real person inside: insecure, vulnerable, and very much alive.
In my work, I use the most basic principles of color, but also of line, shape, and balance. These are the four elements I strive toward in all of my photographs. I favor bold color for its immediacy and impact on the viewer. Then, in order to lead the eye to the focal point, I utilize line and shape to draw the viewer’s attention to particular areas in my work that I want to emphasize. Balance in crucial. I want my model to be at the center of the photograph’s point of tension.
Artifacts that made use of symbols found in the ancient world and the use of simple material contribute toward the creation of these vessels and objects. Subtle surface variation, organic form and mixed messages are bound in each piece. My titles given on each slide are shorter than the message. Cow Jar is actually “do not cry over spilled milk”…as white slip drips beneath a crackled exterior and imperfection and chance are embraced. Most often the pieces are formed in response to personal events and repeated sightings of each creature. I do not experience anything different than most in the Midwest and I do try to pay close attention. Fun is a personal goal as I strive to remain playful and unburdened by the bitterness reality can hold. I believe my art holds and explores that belief. I wonder and am inspired by how difficult life must have been centuries ago and still the creators expressed fascination, juxtapositions and complexities.
I am interested in the creation of works which at once offer the viewer an experience of both stasis as well as movement, presence as well as absence, mass as well as void, projection as well as retraction- without being the embodiment of one to the exclusion of the other. These are what I understand to be the forces inherent in nature- constantly working in relation to each other, yet at times seemingly invisible.
The repetition of the movements and brushwork creates a certain stability and familiarity which allows me to be free from thinking about overtly compositional choices. I merely attend to the rhythms of brushwork, color and surface as I progress with each piece. At times the color and surface appear to vibrate in synchronization; at other times they may suggest discordance, perhaps even upheaval.
Forms may reveal themselves as shimmering entities… are they solid mass, or, like a mirage- merely the movements of vapor? That which may initially appear to be solid, may in fact be as porous as the atmosphere we breathe. Perhaps form is not separate from the surrounding space. Perhaps forms, space, and light are constantly forming and reforming their interrelations in a dynamic exchange. This I leave for the viewer to decide.
Within each of us exists the opportunity, as individuals, to catch a glimpse of something previously not seen. Something unnamable, something which is at once unexplainably familiar and strange… It is in these instances that we may realize the limitations of language as a way to describe certain experiences.
Jim is married to Leah Schietinger, and has two sons, Zane and Dylan, 11 and 7 years old respectively. Jim received a Bachelor or Arts degree in 1968 and his Master of Fine Arts degree in Ceramics at the University of South Florida in 1971. He worked as an Associate Professor at Millikin from 1978-1992 and then as a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Art from 1992 – 1999. Jim has had a multitude of exhibitions, spanning over two decades of work. His work has been displayed in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Kansas, and California. Jim currently enjoys woodworking, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and backpacking.
The logic behind my art is equivalent to that of putting a sock in a toaster.
In other words, I don’t use paint for its pigment but rather as a means of creating a sort of topography in my work. I have always believed that art should evoke tactile sensation and not simply visualization. Because I want my art to be fun, silliness is also an important element of my work, so I enjoy incorporating toys, whimsical or strange objects. I infuse my work with a sense of the absurd messiness or sheer impracticality of life, which, as Tristan Tzara writes, is “a roaring of tense colors and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies.” Above all, I want people to play with my art.
From early on I’ve been influenced by the work of Joseph Cornell because I see in him a kindred spirit across time: here was an artist who played with his work, fashioning found objects into something akin to toy boxes, often filling them with the sort of treasures that might be found in the deep and grimy pockets of a 19th century child. Clearly Cornell loved anything historical, and his work invites others to love it, too. Like Cornell, I love anything historical, and I also hope that, like him, my art causes people to want to feel it or peer into it—best of all, to reach right in and fiddle with it.
The majority of the materials in my work are found objects and are several decades old. I believe that the objects add a tangible sense of a prior life to my art. Recycling the old into the new creates interesting interactions. Even paint, in my work, physically challenges the reality of the objects; I use paint as another sculptural element as opposed to using it to create a visual window. I also like to work with the absence of an object, using paint to create a raised area around it so that when an object is removed, it leaves it an empty area. I work in the space between sculpture and painting, much like Robert Rauschenberg. I like my pieces to be somewhat ambiguous as to whether they are sculptures or painting–actually I don’t feel that it’s important, in my work, for there to be a distinction; in this my work echoes Scott Richter. Art critic David Cohen says of Richter, “When it comes to painterly jest I doubt anyone will outdo Scott Richter [and his] trademark idiom of sculptures constructed out of paint.” When I read Cohen’s description of Richter, I knew that I aspire to something very similar to “painterly jest” in all my work, whatever the medium. Art, after all, is what I do for fun.
I have always been interested in the play of human power or dominance, manifested through the dominance of whites over minorities, the superiority of men over women, and even the play of power between parent and child. In my work I manifest these ideas through the act of bondage. While Post-Colonialism and Feminism are broad terms, I believe that some of the ideas therein apply to the everyday individual. Through the experiences of othering, objectification, and androcentrism we will define our sense of self.
First of all, bondage suggests that a person holds a position of power over another who is bound. In othering, a group may hold the power to single out an individual based on their differences to the group to make them feel inferior. Objectification goes further by saying that the person is no longer a person, but a thing to be used or discarded by the one in power. Last of all, androcentrism is the idea that men are the model of being, meaning that by default all women are inferior. The idea of bondage in my work acts as a metaphor for the individual who experiences these vices found in our society today. Whether at home, at school, or at work this subtle play of power exists and influences us.
In my paintings and drawings I have chosen models from amongst my friends whose lives define a clear sense of individuality, whether through adversities overcome or simply through their desire to stand out against the norms of society. I feel this concept is universal and not subject to understanding by only one gender or one race. Color I use as a counter point to the dark subject of bondage. Like a Technicolor screen, a neon sign, or the flashing lights of a car crash, the viewer will be unable to turn away. They are designed to be horribly beautiful or disturbingly pretty. I paint and draw my figures life size so they will be viewed as equals, and their size makes them unavoidable. Like Caravaggio, my paintings and drawings lack a defined background, and instead survive within a vast dark space. The figures emerge from the shadows as thoughts would emerge from deep within our own minds. In the medium of ceramics, my large pots act as vessels, alluding to objectification in the extreme, to be used and discarded at whim, bound to their roles.
In my work the idea of dominance and submission alludes to a more sinister side of humanity that always exists just beneath the surface. We will all inevitably find ourselves in one position or another throughout our lives, though I characterize this power play in the extreme sense. I do this to make the viewer aware of humanity’s inherent darkness and how it affects today’s society. As characterized by defiant glares and straining limbs we can fight against these societal restraints. My challenge to the viewer is to look beyond the disturbing subject of bondage and see through to the beauty of individuals beneath. We do not have to submit to these dead-end vices, but instead learn to live through them and eventually destroy them.
During each season, no matter what the weather may be, I will take a walk. Each place I go often offers a new vista, something that might escape the casual eye. These photographs, taken during inclement weather conditions such as dense fog or ice storms gave me visions in my camera that others might miss as they, too, walked the same path.
As I worked on my computer, I began to play with effects, which might alter the already naturally altered scenarios. The creative process already practiced as a musician begins to take shape in theme and variation, texture, warmth, color and other qualities that are possessed in both music and visual art. I hope that perhaps you will enjoy the results as much as I enjoyed creating these photographs.
My ideas revolve around the interaction, struggle and play between organic and geometric shapes. These ideas are investigated within formal qualities and traditions. This exploration between space and form, inner verses the outer, living versus manufactured have announced their existence in this body of work.
Working with traditional elements such as line, color, process, and form I set out to achieve aesthetically pleasing and sound compositions. I believe process, the subtraction and addition of elements, to be an essential part of any artists work. Constantly striving for new forms, colors, compositions, and never settling with the most immediate solutions keep the surfaces from suffocating within themselves, and allow forms the freedom to change.
When working I try not to limit myself by over analyzing and ascribing undue “meaning” to my work. I am simply working within my process to achieve believable forms and resolve spatial issues. Every line or shape does not need to represent some specific thing. Instead, the line or shape is merely something that belongs to a greater cause, something that enhances or disrupts the end result. These forms I discover through drawing and painting are “rough drafts” for my sculptures. Organic and geometric shapes come into existence through wood and steel. These two very opposite mediums naturally incorporate the principles of the geometric and organic relationship.
Richard Diebenkorn stated, “The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued except as a stimulus for further moves.” Diebenkorn, as well as Robert Motherwell, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Dann Nardi, are all artists whose passion and commitment in their exploration of formal qualities and techniques have led vast amounts of knowledge to me, and continue to direct me towards new solutions. These formal ideals of the past seem to be slowly decaying among our fast paced digital world, and as these principles appear to be dying within our modern times, I can safely affirm that they are not forgotten.
“Conversations” is the culmination of my most recent work in the media of ceramics and painting. The title “conversations” references to my personal experience of art making, as well as the dialogue that I hope you experience with these artworks here in the gallery and their continues involvement in daily life. “Conversations” is not a verbal reference towards the artwork or, in a broader sense, towards life, but an ongoing approach of slowing down and taking a second look at the qualities and values that our surrounding consist of. Additionally, this is not a one-sided conversation. My association with ordinary, unassuming objects of daily life offers me enriching experiences. I hope you rediscover and come to new understandings of the beauty, fulfillment, and comfort of your surroundings.
My ceramics, above all, are part of the tradition of “form follows function.” Craftsmanship and sensitivity towards the forms in use are elements of the functional vessels I create. Working within the concepts of function, I have the freedom to intimately and expressively search for ways to entice the senses, being aware that these are objects for use. They have a presence that mass-produces objects do not possess. Shoji Hamada of Eastern Asian tradition, and Bernard Leach of Western European influence my work. Simplistic aesthetics were valued and engrained in their life and work as traditional functional potters. Their aesthetics emerged from cultural traditions, yet incorporated their awareness and search for other worldly traditions and aesthetics of the time.
Through painting, I have discovered a strong affinity for the visualization and interpretation of color intensified by light. Working from still-life, I reexamine the colors that I visualize. Coupled with my desire to emphasize my presence, energy, and time as elements of the painting, the expressive application and use of intense color help convey these ideals. Inspired by West Coast abstract expressionist artist Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud of the mid 20th Century, I am encouraged by their use of intense color, layering, expressive brushwork, exploration of space with color and light, as well as subject matter. Through color and expressive painting, especially, they convey a luscious presence of ordinary objects, people, and surroundings.
I have sincerely enjoyed getting to know the faculty and students of Millikin University and all of those I have met on the road during my college experiences. A special thanks to Jim Schietinger, Rebecca Johnson, Ray Noelle, Dana Drozd, and my parents Mike and Esther Stofleth for their terrific help with this exhibition. Thank you for all of your support!
“In an artist’s life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.” - Vincent Van Gogh
Presently, my ceramic work is about nostalgia. Sentimental objects, vivid recollections of my mother, and sibling rivalry play a significant role. For me, clay is an outlet for examining the importance of the objects that remain of my mother and remind me of my childhood. Whether it is my mother’s belt hugging a pot, or a negative image of a paper snowflake representing the paper cutting competitions my brother and I repeatedly had, a heightened sense of realism is evident. I strive to allow my viewers to understand the strong impact my mother, and my brother had on my childhood. Form, process, and color interaction are three avenues I continue to explore. Knowing whether to emphasize form or color, while being bombarded and inspired by natural forms and various arrays of glazes, can be overwhelming. With further experimentation and the vast knowledge of my sponsor, Jim Schietinger, my hopes are to increase my knowledge of form and color and the impact and size of my pieces. I have yet to declare my second concentration, but I’m strongly leaning towards drawing. My drawings deal with my continuous curiosity of light, texture, and facial features. I find it fascinating that a simple adjustment of light or the shape of an eye can dramatically alter the mood or the appearance of a face or form. Yet, I struggle with bringing forth the emotions I want to convey to my viewers. My acceptance into the BFA program will allow me to gain more knowledge, experience, and experimentation with my own work. A BFA in Art Education will allow me to share my love and knowledge of art with the students of tomorrow. It will also allow me to further my education, which will intern help me to acquire a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts.
When I took my first photography class while on a sabbatical, a fellow student asked me, “Why are all of your photos landscapes, when you’re a sociologist?”An interesting question that pushed me to realize that I use photography to develop a different side of me.When I’m with other people, I am connecting actively with them, or constantly noticing the patterns of social structure and culture.When I’m sitting at the computer writing or analyzing data, my scientific logic becomes predominant.Even when I’m teaching, monitoring the students’ attention and the effect I’m having on their learning is paramount.
As a photographer, however, I become sensitized to the beauty around me.That sensitization enriches my life and connects me emotionally to the world.It helps me stay open, simply as an observer.Seeing beauty or interesting visual scenes, actually putting the camera up to my face, framing an image, resolving the exposures, and then hearing the “click” of the mirror as I snap the shutter physically connects me to the natural world.Sometimes the result of this experience, the image on the computer or the page, is an afterthought.But looking at the raw images on the computer connects me back to nature again, and as I successfully edit, print, and frame a photograph, I revisit that physical connection to the beauty of the world once more.I feel very privileged to be both a sociologist and a photographer.
The process of painting has been a personal, genuine search that has challenged my technique and furthered my growth as an artist. Focusing on formal elements, I try to create an intimate relationship between color, form, and surface to create a cohesive composition. With an organic and dauntless approach, curvy forms emerge through bright vibrant color, as delicate line weaves in and around. Thick, worked surfaces are also home to repetitive decorative pattern, which lies under thin layers, or boldly rests on top of built up paint. These paintings to an extent are a representation of me and my experiences while growing up female, words like dainty and soft as well as independent and strong are words that I have come to have affection towards as I have grown through womanhood. Sanguine in character and confident in presence, they are finally coming into their own and requiring some attention.
Those were the words my four year old son Adam said when he looked into the BIG box filled with wood scraps that were conveniently discarded from the construction project my wife and I had contracted on our house last fall. And play we did…..
All of the pieces I created for this exhibit were produced in collaboration with Adam while we shared many constructive hours playing in my basement studio at home. We did much of the work together - cutting, gluing, painting and constructing. We, of course, had our creative differences as well as normal adolescent lapses in attention and/or focus on the task at hand. But, for the most part, these assembled pieces should simply be viewed for how they were developed and not so much for what their content represents or the visual metaphors to which they allude.
There was never a concise order to the construction of the pieces. They were all worked on at the same time. Adam and I were like bees buzzing from one flower to the next, adding one little thing here, cutting a piece of wood there, and brushing paint EVERYWHERE. I was responding to the materials we had at hand and made decisions based on the traditional design principles of symmetry, balance and form.
Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. Assemblage is the 3-dimensional cousin of collage. In 1961 the exhibition "The Art of Assemblage" was featured at the New York Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition showcased the work of artists such as Braque, Joseph Cornell, Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, and Kurt Schwitters. William C. Seitz, the curator of the exhibition, described assemblages as being made up of performed natural or manufactured materials, objects, or fragments not intended as art materials. These works also give my own professional nod to the influence of Betye Saar and Seymour Fogel, whose work I became familiar with when we staged exhibits of the their work here in the gallery in 2003 and 2006 respectively.
These art objects are more meaningful to me as a dad than they are to me as an artist. They are valuable to me because they represent quality time spent alone with my son with no other outside distractions; no purple dinosaurs, talking cars, of furry red monsters - just me and my son and a box full of wood scraps.
Process. Interaction. Intimacy. All three are important to my work.
I must admit that photography has never really thrilled me. It seemed a little too simple--find something intriguing and then push a button to capture it. Then I discovered that capturing the image was just the beginning--there was so much more after that.
When I started working with Polaroids, I fell in love with photography. I love the immediacy and flexibility of Polaroids. I could capture an image quickly and after that the possibilities were endless.
With SX-70 I could manipulate and sculpt the image into something completely different from it's origin while Polaroid transfers allowed me to remove images from their original source and then manipulate them on paper. Both processes allowed me to physically interact with my photos beyond the simple push of a button.
Interacting with Polaroids became an intimate experience not only because of the physicalness of the process, but also due to the size of the medium. To maintain intimacy with my work, it is important to keep the pieces small. By keeping my work small, it also extends intimacy to the viewer.
The way of drawing is touching, moving, and seeing. The mark making is basic and wonderfully intimate. There is a clarity in those lines. There is also a sense of incompleteness- traces of an experience passed. Paper has its own delicate wonder.
In this work, I explore several problems: If optical reality is better recorded with a camera, what reality is uniquely recorded by drawing? And what about figure drawing - are we only what we casually see? And of the act of seeing: why does the picture plane seem to have its own kind of physics? And of the act of making: how do I start and know when to stop when I am making something unknown?
These works on paper are figure drawing without the figure: the nude energy of marks in space. I am intrigued by the paradox of the plane: flat yet deep; solid and empty; static yet moving. In all of this work, I seek freedom from the known, trying to touch intangibles.
I see, touch and move. What is happening? Conversations with what exactly I don't know, but I can tell if I am listening or not. There is faith and doubt. If things aren't working, I try something different. Those moments when I feel puzzled are most promising. One of the most rewarding experiences is being surprised and carried to a place I did not intend to be.
Each drawing is only an energy signature, a kind of fossil. Your willingness to creatively see and empathize brings each work to life.
The concept of identity is the source of inspiration for a lot of my work. Looking at rural structures in the landscape, I was struck by the history built into these places and how much one's identity could be constructed around the presence of that environment. People who work with the land, such as farmers, have an obvious connection to the countryside. Commuters who drive by it everyday also have a connection, as does anyone who has had an experience within the landscape. Visual landmarks contribute as we orient ourselves to them — I live across from the grove of trees on the left side of the road. Rural structures and other elements that find their way into my drawings often times have multiple meanings related to their function that mirror human actions. Barns and silos store and protect, while fences can protect by keeping things in or out. And all three of those can break down with time. Fields create rhythms and patterns that are familiar with the passing of each season. This adds to the collective identity of the Midwest.
I create an illusion of depth in painting for the viewers to feel apart of the piece. To me space is an important aspect in my works with creating a vast place that one can feel the pressure of the forms pushing and pulling towards us. From looking at Hans Hoffman theory of push pull in his works I have began to understand the use of depth and color relationship in painting. With these relationship I have push my work further with vibrant and true colors that allows the eyes to be attracted to.
