Statement

Who sees the world more correctly?

This currentt body of work was inspired by recent trips to Europe, when I forewent my usual trek to contemporary art venues, in favor of visiting the more conservative institutions housing genre and history paintings of the old masters. This encounter served to reinforce my admiration for the work of the masters and my belief that figurative painting will always be relevant, as each new generation reinterprets the human experience.

I look for narrative in my images and by carrying a small digital camera with me at all times, I am able to document daily life in this twenty first century. The camera becomes my sketchbook, and the images are my drawings.

Once the jpegs are digitally processed and reviewed, it becomes clear, that what at first glance appeared to be a simple market scene, will upon further examination, reveal a voyeuristic view of individual interactions and undisclosed emotions. Graffiti on a wall asserts much more than artistic expression, and a walk in the park exposes societies strengths and weaknesses.

Rather than print my photographs onto paper, I have chosen to reproduce them by hand, using time tested oil pigments and newly fashioned alkyd resins.

This method of reproduction is similar to processes used by contemporary artists like Chuck Close or Malcolm Morely. By printing out small fragments of a larger image and then methodically rendering it, section by section, onto prepared canvas, notions of reality begin to blur and the photographic image becomes one with the painted surface.

As this series continued it only seemed natural to allow the two materials to merge. By leaving a fragment of the reference photograph on the painted surface, deceptions begin to occur. At first glance the rendered canvas appears to be a photograph, but quickly breaks down into a painting, upon further examination the photograph is detected and the viewer is confronted with the question: Who sees the world more correctly, the photographer or the painter?

2010

Art is flat
Jami NIx Rahn 2006

"The World is Flat" declares Thomas Friedman in the title of his best seller. He elucidates this point by citing the internet, technology and outsourcing as only a few of the twenty first century phenomena that have leveled the global playing field. Taking Friedman's conclusion one step further we may declare that "Art" has also been flattened. Artists today like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst orchestrate art objects that are global, high tech and outsourced. With newly adopted and reconfigured conceptual strategies and codes accepted in the art world today, everything is art and everyone is an artist. There no longer exists a hierarchy of skill and craft. Today's artist is no longer bound by a dogmatic school buried in tradition. We have adopted a collective decree that anything and everything is art. This assertion was defiantly demonstrated in 1917 by Marcel Duchamp when he took a gentleman's urinal, signed it and put it on display as "Art". Since Duchamp, artists have continued to shock the art establishment and redefine contemporary culture.

I am of the opinion that art should have a relationship with society. This relationship may be one of pure aesthetic pleasure or in the form of a conversation in order to fulfill a larger purpose. Artistic considerations of everyday objects when recycled and transformed evoke an ephemeral sense of nostalgia, but it is the process and traditional technical skills that will heighten our perceptions numbed by huge amounts of high tech visual data.

I seek to reintroduce the tactility missing in this flat screened world by committing to traditional art making materials while incorporating newly established resources and nontraditional objects. The internet, technology and outsourcing may have flattened the world but a fine balance of spirit and matter will illuminate the landscape.