I am exhibiting in the "Holiday Shopping Expo" on Saturday, November 15th, from 10:00am - 4:00pm at the Sunnyview Exposition Center in Oshkosh. FREE Admission and the first 250 adults receive a gift bag.

I currently have glass pendants for sale at:
Coventry Glass Works, 514 West college Avenue, Appleton.
Art Off Main Gallery, 115 Washington Street, Oshkosh.
Beaver Dam Area Arts Association, 1605 North Spring Street, Beaver Dam.
 

Artwork I create shows my response to the past and what I aim to be my future experiences.  Once I see my response to experiences as a concrete sensation rather than an abstract idea, the response becomes clearer to me and the viewer. The clarification of my response to experience, I call my view of life. Once this view of life becomes concretized I, as well as others, can examine it. Through this examination of the artwork I found that my view of life was not coherent with reality and needed revision.  So I create a new artwork to show this revised response, thus starting the process of clarifying a new idea all over again.  While creating art through this process I realized this clarification, or better view, inspires and drives one to create an even clearer view of reality. Therefore, the purpose of art is to motivate and inspire while having a fringe benefit of strengthening the connection between consciousness and reality making life coherent and the individual proud.

In order to convey the relationship of consciousness to reality, I use realism, representing external reality, within surreal settings, symbolizing mental reality. By emphasizing the relationship, or contrast, of consciousness to reality I want to draw attention to the fact that art is the process of taking an idea from the mind and forming it into a physically concrete object.  In order to bring an idea into physical reality the idea must align with the visual language of reality. Otherwise, you are not bringing the idea out of your mind, not clarifying the thought, and thusly not fulfilling the purpose of art. I found that the most primary building blocks of this visual language are tone and form, because all other aspects of the visual language; for example depth, line, hue, composition, balance, etc.; come after tone and form.  Most of my work is created with an intense concentration on the essential visual elements of tone and form. By experimenting with these visual elements, I am searching for the most purposeful and efficient means to creating art. Ultimately this means will allow for a balancing of my concentration primarily from physically translating the concept, to perfecting the concept itself.

My work deals with identity and purpose. In dealing with these ideas I realized my response to experience was that suffering and pity were means to virtue. Through art it became clearer to me that suffering was only a small aspect of life. This became obvious because I had to repeat painful images to depict these so called virtues.  I actually sought pain and pity because it fulfilled my view of existence.  I began the process of painting my new view to examine it.  This body of work is a reflection upon finding this new view: pride and resilience are virtues leading to happiness. The understanding, that pride and resilience are virtues, not only develops through the process of reflection upon a piece of artwork but through the creation of the artwork itself. I no longer see life as constantly escaping from pain but continuously seeking joy. My art is a tribute to human ability instead of a plea for pity. I hope all who see these works feel not pity and pain, but respect and admiration for humanity and in turn, themselves.

  -Jon