Artist's Statement

I would like to think that my paintings are something like borrowed memories from some collective consciousness. They are populated by characters whose names you never knew and they live in a carefully isolated moment somehow close to something somehow dear and familiar. Thick, creamy oil paint, color, flatness and gesture compete for attention with recognizable form and an illusion of real space. The method of my painting may be best described as reasonable precision and the purpose - the ongoing amusement of discovering order. I want a painting to be a unique place to continually visit, enjoy and think about. A place where some vaguely familiar scenario entertains your imagination like one of those haunting visual memories that are burned in your mind, but you can’t quite remember when, where or how it came to be there. I want the immediate interpretive brush stroke to be logically precise and the process and struggle of each painting to be a satisfying resolution to that rectangle. I want each step and every decision and revision in the solution to be readily apparent.

Current Series:

Images of the Depression Era South

J. W. Gardner

Artist’s Statement

INFLUENCES

In addition to the many painters that I admire, my work often attempts to incorporate the visual attitudes and sensibilities of the popular culture of the era. Some of these include the WPA Murals, advertising images and illustrations of the late twenties and early thirties from both magazines and children’s books.

I am also fascinated with the visual qualities of deterioration. The way photographs yellow, fade and oxidize with age or the way that a billboard peals away over time to revile bits and tatters of what is beneath are very interesting to me. Deterioration has been one of the more consistent ideas in my painting and drawing for many years.

Visit the Artist's Franklin County Studio / Gallery by Appointment

60 miles north of Greensboro, 40 miles south of Roanoke

4421 Virgil Goode Highway (US 220)

Rocky Mount, VA 24151