Commentary
Images of the Depression Era South
J. W. Gardner
9/9/04
Rediscovery
This series of oil paintings, smaller studies and drawings marks a new commitment to exploring the possibilities of recognizable imagery. It began as an exercise in discipline and a calculated attempt to regain my facility as a painter after nearly 15 years of not painting. By forcing myself to structure these paintings within the confines of realistic imagery, it was my belief that I would more quickly recapture the particular skills and sensibilities that once were second nature. I wanted to be able to make paint do what I wanted it to do. But, 15 years is a long time and it has been slow going. Paintings that would have been discarded or painted over, became arduous tasks that had to be completed. Each one, represented unique problems I found myself compelled to solve. The immediacy that I was after was difficult and in many cases impossible for me to achieve.
In most instances, I sought to make the subject as difficult as possible. Human hands for example, perhaps the most difficult thing to paint, were included in almost every figure in an attempt to force myself to find a solution. Slowly, these labored and clumsy attempts began to come more easily, but what would have been a simple matter of a few quick gestures in 1990 often took days to complete. The more formalistic aspects of creating a painting such as general composition, color relationships and perspective came easily because once learned this knowledge is largely retained. But, the facility of manipulating paint, rendering rapidly and simplifying images into basic shapes and gestures came very slowly. I found myself using more elementary techniques like dry-brushing and endlessly tedious over-painting to create an illusion of the instant interpretation that I wanted, but could not achieve.
I believe that the reason that painting endures as perhaps the most pure and culturally valuable means of human expression is in large part due to the difficulty of the endeavor and the undisguised honesty of the vehicle. A painting is pure communication and even if a painter employs the learned multitude of tricks they are instantly recognized by the informed observer and in themselves convey (even betray) the mind and purpose of the artist. I hate the fact that many of the earlier paintings in this series revel my inadequacies so completely. To be honest, I have included them in the series in an effort to offer a narrative of my own slow progress. But, happily, progress is being realized, and the poor showing of earlier outings are placed in a happier context by more recent efforts. The painful struggle so clearly displayed in "Tobacco Farmer," is satisfactorily off-set by the immediacy of "Neighbor Comin.' And, while the most satisfying painting to date is "Rubberneckin," the instantaneous decision making that I long to recapture can be witnessed at least in part in several other paintings in the series.
In one sense, I really like looking at the bad ones and I have found myself keeping the bad ones around my easel on the walls of my studio where the hard-fought lessens of their failed attempts inform the newer work much more effectively than do the better paintings in the series. Every painting must be a struggle. Otherwise, it is simply object-making and is reduced to a craft. Great paintings (and my new work is far from that), must be a clearly delineated intellectual struggle that is consummated by a unique and satisfying solution. They are achieved though the torment of mental extraction and possess a life and vitality that is unique and specific unto itself in all the world because its battle for resolution exists solely within the tiny confines of its own little rectangle.
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Copyright © 2004, James William Gardner, All Rights Reserved
Rubberneckin' Uptown 2004
Current Series:
Images of the Depression Era South
Oil on Canvas
Making A Painting
ABOUT THE FIGURE
I have always found the human figure to be the most interesting image to paint. Over the years I have approached the figure in a number of different ways, but the recognizable human form has been a constant aspect of my work. I enjoy the challenge of working with the figure. The demands that it imposes on the painter are considerable, but the personal satisfaction of finding a visual solution is constantly rewarding.
As a painter, my primary interest is paint – its application, its direct energy, its texture and color. The figure provides primary components of composition and the recognizable framework that gives reason to the paint and its application. But, for me, the affection for the human figure goes far beyond the formal aspects of a painting. I love the personal, psychological aspects of the painted figure. It is impossible to create the image of a person in paint without feeling the personality of the face that is looking back at you from the canvas. What are the emotions suggested by that face, the story and the struggles? I think that it is really impossible to look at a painted image of another human being and not ponder the possibilities of that person’s story.
My new series of paintings: Images of the Depression Era South, explore these qualities of personality. Unlike much of my earlier work where I tried to downplay the personal, human aspects to create ambiguous, anonymous figures; my new paintings try very hard to evoke feelings of personal association. I want viewers to think about the story behind the painting. Not precisely as an illustrator might, but hopefully more in the way that a poet might bring to life a strong emotional association with a person or character in a particular time and place. I want my paintings to evoke strong emotional sensations, elements of memory and associations with a South that is no more and people that are lost to time. I want my viewers to feel the heat of a Saturday afternoon in August, smell the dust from a dirt road or the penny candy in a country store and I want them to hear the music and the conversation or know what the starched white shirt feels like beneath or beyond the thick paint and impressionistic brush strokes.
It is my aim that the personality and the narrative story of these images fight for the attention of the viewer with the paint. I want color, form, texture and composition to be equally satisfying. And, I want my paintings to be immediate and filled with energy. I want one simple twist of a brush to make an intriguing smile and an instant slash of cadmium red be a silk necktie blowing in the wind.
Detail:
Waitin' on Walter 2004
Oil on Canvas
Private Collection
2004 EDEN EXHIBIT
J. W. Gardner
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.
