James Gallagher
About Me.
James Rosenquist said, “Art doesn’t do anything but help you deal with what bothers you.” Making art is an explanation of self or identity often expressed as “having a voice.” What is it that engaged one’s senses and helps one express their uniqueness? What makes one person find beauty in an object and another person not see the beauty in the same object? Finding that voice can take a lifetime. I seem to respond to an “atonal” quality in my paintings and its, much like the paintings of Joan Mitchell, Anselm Keifer, Philip Guston, and he ancient pottery of Japan.
In this time of current technologies and less human participation, whether AI or time spent staring at the computer screen, which is what I think “bothers me,” I find myself exploring the ancient stone carving or stone circles that helped explain the wonders of the world to curious human ages ago. And the Japanese pottery of Iga and Bizen, which are from the ancient kilns of Japan. These things are far from the current technologies of our culture and have a distinct and unique human quality to them.
Through my paintings, I attempt to find aesthetic resolutions through a creative responser to color, composition and mark as a painting evolves. Many paintings go through layers of development by painting then sanding until the painting feels resolved. Each painting is a unique exploration and does not depend on a formula or preconceived plan.
My pots are inspired by Japanese Bizen and Iga pots, which often follow the theory of “Waibi” aesthetics. Wabi being that which is from nature and not “machine like.” I use Charcoal ash for glazes and ash deposits that are unpredictable, leaving much of the glazed reflecting the movement of the flame in the filk and temperature of the fire. The pots have some distortion and have marks that resemble some of the ancient stone carvings from the prehistoric times.
I hope to make art that is the result of “what bothers me” although I am sure AI could have done a better job writing my artist statement.
