October 6-31, 2015
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| Feeding Thoughts & Illusions |
Opening Reception:
Friday October 16, 7-9 pm
John is a graduate of the Fine Arts program at Fanshawe and holds an Honors Degree in Visual Art from Western as well as a Bachelor of Education. Currently John teaches visual art at Beal Secondary school in the Beal Art Program.
John explains his art in his own words:
The use of
narrative has always been a large part of my creative process. Communicating
ideas in a visual manner is a central component of my practice. Quite often
themes and symbols are developed as a reaction to the stringing of words that
can be found in not only my writing but also phrases gleaned from poets and
various forms of popular culture.
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| Talk of the Town |
We are all
creatures of our experiences and observations. These experiences shape our
world view and our concerns manifest themselves in our daily life and influence
our perception of events. It is in moments of meditation that I find myself
exploring those experiences in a visual manner. However there is a grey line
between events and our perception of them. In the interior of our psyche we can
at times infer events that conflict with our rational experiences and it is
those projected thoughts that I am exploring. Not unlike the story of Plato’s
Cave and the experiences of silhouettes that are casted shadows on a wall that
represent the concrete world.
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| Iconoclast |
The
inclusion of contour lines plays with the idea that these projections are not
truly there but are mere shadows. Their existence represents subconscious symbols
which are a reaction, when projected upon our reality tell a different or new
story.
Often times
within these compositions the faces are hidden or intentionally cropped in
order to develop a more universal experience for the viewer, this is done in order
to allow the viewer to identify and see themselves or past experiences of their
own within the work.
