Art challenges
our habits of perception.

Art transforms
the everyday.

Art is social.

Art is everything.

Art is enigmatic.

Art alters it’s
environment.

Art is meaningful.

Art is confusing.

Art is private.

Art is public.

Art is meaningless.

Art is communication.

Art is contradictory.

Art is fiction.

Art is an obsession.

Everything is art.

WALL SCULPTURE PAINTINGS

DEVELOPMENT AND THE INFLUENCE
OF MODERN MATERIALS

The first use of a shaped canvas in my work came in early 1973, while I was still in art school. It occurred to me that the shape of the canvas itself could be used as an important compositional element. This came about by reducing the composition to what I felt were only the necessary elements. This produced an irregular shape, relating specifically to the action within the composition. Following this I produced several pieces utilizing the predominant concept of the picture as window. In these, I changed the overall picture shape from the standard rectangle to an irregular polygon. Challenging the idea that all windows needed to be rectangular allows the viewer to alter their perception of the world. For several years I continued with this method of painting and found that it was effective in stimulating viewers. Although I had changed the window, the paintings were still in a picture format and eventually found myself back to my original concept of making the shape an integral part of the composition. I felt a need for a canvas support that was not flat, something sculptural that would break me free of the painting as picture mode of thinking.

In 1981, I came across the sheet foam material used for insulating. I was intrigued with the material, it had a consistent density, a good firm body, was lightweight and was designed to last. After some experiments with cutting and shaping, I found that it responded well to sculpting. I knew that I had found the support material that I needed to give my work a new dimension. The construction process began by laminating the foam to a sheet of plywood and cutting out a shape. I was ecstatic because I immediately realized that the shape didn’t require straight edges.

After sculpting it is given a coat of shellac to protect the canvas from the acidity of the wood. When dry, I stretch cotton or linen canvas over the armature and staple to the plywood backing. The tight weave of the canvas is designed to be used on flat rectangles and has a limited bias stretch. It often takes considerable time to get the canvas fit the shape that I’ve prepared. The canvas is then given a ground coat of gesso before painting.

What this shaping of the canvas support meant was that the pieces had made a transformation from picture to object. An important distinction here, is that although they may still be recognized as individual objects, their presence on a wall allows them to act as individual compositional elements, thereby activating the entire wall and becoming an integral part of the environment.

Twenty-seven paintings and seven years later, I found latex sand texture paint, another material, well suited to the changes taking place in the development of my work. The paintings had indeed become objects and through the development of exacting paint layering techniques, the surfaces displayed elaborate depths of texture. Latex texture paint made it possible to contrast the elaborate paint layering with textures that mimic those of coarse ceramics. This was an exciting time, because some of the pieces had come to resemble artifacts, but unlike any artifact seen before. I was pleased and excited with the prospect of this contradiction inherient in the appearance of these new sculptural paintings.

Of course not everything I try comes out the way I expect, but that is the nature of experimentation, and there are those thrilling moments when a test actually turns out better than expected. That is part of the drive that keeps me creating new artwork, the chance that a new discovery is waiting at the end of each new piece. In each artwork there is the opportunity for me to learn something and hopefully a chance to inspire someone else.

LOW RELIEF CARVINGS

During the construction of a column Jim utilized PVC pipe for the sturcture as well as for a connecting band. The band was carved using a router and palm gouges. Then in 1999 he found expanded PVC to be much more suited to work with palm gouges than the solid PVC was. Once through the firm surface, the interior of the sheet has a density similar to that of a soft wood and is a delight to carve due to the consistency of the grain.

The grainy texture of the expanded PVC holds the dry pigments rubbed into the deeper cut areas, whereas the shallow or uncut surface would resist more of the color. This variation in the acceptance of color contributes to the unique character of each piece.

Many of the carved low reliefs have been mounted in exotic and domestic hardwoods, presented in a plaque form.

Some of the pieces have been reserved for mold making and others are simple sketch-like carvings used to directly mold cotton paper pulp. Molds are prepared directly from the carved pieces retaining excellent detail. When the dry paper is pulled from the mold it is complete and ready for mounting.

Many of these carvings come from sketches of figures and faces draw upon symbolism from a wide variety of world cultures, both present and ancient. These sketches and carvings present a view expressing that this collective history of our world is what makes us the people we are today and shapes the world of our future. We often have more in common than we think.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Since 1974 Jim have worked with graphic design in many capacities for commercial printers and as a freelance designer. In 1977 he was a participant in Indiana Creative Resource Corporation's Bloomington Working Artist Project, providing design services to not-for-profit organizations in the Bloomington community. For thirteen years Jim served as art director and prepress department supervisor for commercial printing companies; Fine Print, Inc. and then Western Sun Printing Company.

EXHIBIT DESIGN

After a four year period of freelance design he was convinced to join, long time client Channel-Kor Systems, an exhibit manufacturer.
At C-K, he expanded the capabilities and services provided by the design department. That transition involved a move from traditional table drafting to 3-D computer aided design, trained and managed a small design staff and maintained an office network. The design department provided client/dealer coordination with the sales staff for exhibit design as well as product development, advertising design, dealer support materials, web site production and custom product assembly instructions. For several months following the merger of Channel-Kor Systems and Intex Exhibits in 2000 he provided coordination and proposal design support for the C-K products.

Currently Jim maintains an office in the Channel-Kor building and is working as a freelance designer in both print and exhibit design.

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND

Born: 1950; Grants Pass, Oregon.

During high school, Jim participated in two Able and Gifted programs in connection with Southern Oregon College, which afforded him the opportunity to work with printmaking. One print, a colograph, won a National Scholastic Art Award and was displayed in New York city.
A year later, he attended S.O.C. as an honor student, concentrating on design and printmaking.

In 1970, with the draft in effect, Jim chose to join the United States Air Force. After two years of graphic work in the U.S.A.F., he received an honorable discharge and moved to Massachusetts to attend art school.

At Montserrat School of Visual Art he explored a wide range of styles and techniques, experimenting with shaped canvases and developing reductionist concepts in composition. Woven through this was a concentration on the compositional use of expressive color.

After Montserrat he returned to Oregon for two years where he worked in design for print, then moved to Bloomington, Indiana in 1975. Diversity characterizes this period: hard-edged, abstract, non-objective, visual metaphor, and occasional representational works. The work on shaped canvases continued, usually irregular polygons with flat surfaces, until 1981, when the pieces became more sculptural.