Statement

| Jim

Art as an exploration of our affinities by means of the various media available to us. I use paint and pencil, wood and steel, plastic and paper-maché. I paint, draw, sculpt, photograph, grow weeds.

Me as an artist. I don’t think that’s strange. Once I was a financial analyst. Now that was strange.

Affinities as what motivate us to create because a thought, a word, a vision  touches what is already there, internal to us.

Influences as permission to pursue affinities.

Me as not growing up with Art, so that when I became an art student at Bard College, I became wrapped around the axle over the question, “What is Art?” I spoke to one of my instructors, Murray Reich, and he said, “Jim, it’s not about Art. It’s about Pursuing an Idea.”

My Pursuing Ideas as a wide spectrum of work with no concise way to tie it up in a neat little package.

Thus, each section of my website has a discussion of where I think that work came from. The bottom line is, however, to not get absorbed in explanations but to simply look at the work and see if you connect to it.

Statement

| Jim

Art is the exploration of our affinities by means of the various media available to us. I use paint and pencil, wood and paper-maché, plastic and steel. Among other things. I paint, draw, sculpt, photograph, grow weeds.

Affinities are the things we perceive and feel that motivate us to create. A squiggle in a Jasper Johns’ Flag. A weed pressing through the thawing March soil. The awesome complexity of a page in the Book of Kells. These are some of mine. Though often thought of as influences, they are in reality affinities that touch what is already internal to us.

As in all exploration, our discoveries reveal forms, images, and concepts that amaze. This is not self-indulgence or self-discovery in some existential sense. It’s just about knowing what’s in the package and delighting in it. Well, sometimes, anyway.

Not having grown up with Art, when I became an art student at Bard College, I became wrapped around the axle over the question, “What is Art?” I spoke to one of my instructors, Murray Reich, and he said, “Jim, it’s not about Art. It’s about Pursuing an Idea.”

My difficulty is that I have had, and continue to have, so many ideas to pursue that my work can seem disjointed. Once I became an art student (“What? People actually go to college for this?”) and after graduating, I wanted to try everything. The longer I’ve worked at it, the more I’ve been able to distill the major components of my pursuits.

Each section of my website has a discussion of the affinities that influenced that pursuit. The bottom line for me, however, is to not get absorbed in explanations but to simply look at the work and see if you connect to it.